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Lightning, thunder, thunderbolts, tempests,
inundations, earthquakes, and other such unforeseen
accidents, excite even the most indevout persons to
fear God, and nature, which goes before reasoning in
those occurrences, drives the heart, the eyes, yea
the very hands heavenwards to invoke the assistance
of the most holy Divinity, according to the common
sentiment of mankind, which is, says Titus Livius,
that such as serve the Almighty prosper, and such as
contemn him are afflicted.
In the storm which imperilled Jonas, the mariners
feared with a great fear, and immediately each of
them turned to his god. They were ignorant, says S.
Jerome, of the truth, yet they knew there was a
Providence, and believed it was by the judgment of
heaven that they were in this danger; as those of
Malta, when they saw S. Paul, after the shipwreck,
attacked by the viper, believed that it was from the
divine vengeance.(1)
And indeed thunder and lightning, tempests,
thunderbolts, are called by the Psalmist, Voices of
the Lord; and he says further, that they fulfil his
word,(2) because they proclaim his fear, and are as
ministers of his justice. And again, desiring that
the divine Majesty should make his enemies tremble,
he says: Send forth lightning and thou shalt scatter
them: shoot out thy arrows, and thou shalt trouble
them:(3) where he terms thunderbolts the arrows and
darts of God.
And before the Psalmist, Samuel's good mother had
already sung, that even God's enemies would fear him,
if he would thunder over them from heaven.(4) Indeed
Plato, in his Gorgias and elsewhere, testifies that
there was some sense of fear among the pagans, not
only concerning the chastisements which the sovereign
justice of God inflicts in this world, but also
concerning the punishments which he inflicts in the
other life upon the souls of those who have incurable
sins. So deeply is the instinct of fearing the
Divinity graven in man's nature.
This fear, however, when felt after the manner of a
first movement, or natural feeling, is neither to be
praised nor blamed in us, since it proceeds not from
our free-will. Yet it is an effect from a very good
cause, and a cause of a very good effect; for it
comes from the natural knowledge which God has given
us of his Providence, and gives us to understand how
closely we depend on the sovereign omnipotence,
moving us to implore his aid; and when this feeling
is found in a faithful soul, it much advances her in
goodness.
Christians (amidst the dread which thunder,
tempests, and other natural dangers cause in them)
invoke the sacred names of Jesus and of Mary, make
the sign. of the Cross, prostrate themselves before
God, and make many good acts of faith, hope and
religion. The glorious saint Thomas Aquinas, being
naturally subject to terror when it thundered, was
accustomed to say, as an ejaculatory prayer, the
divine words which the church so much esteems: The
Word was made flesh. Upon this fear, then, divine
love frequently makes acts of complacency and
benevolence: I will praise thee, for thou art
fearfully magnfied.(5) Let every one fear thee, O
Lord! O ye kings understand: receive instruction, you
that judge the earth. Serve ye the Lord with fear:
and rejoice unto him with trembling.6
But there is another fear, taking its origin from
faith, which teaches us that after this mortal life
there are punishments fearfully eternal, or eternally
to be feared, prepared for such as in this world have
offended the Divine Majesty and die without being
reconciled to him; that at the hour of death the soul
shall be judged by a particular judgment; and that at
the end of the world all shall rise and appear
together to be judged again in the universal
judgment.
For these Christian truths, Theotimus; strike with
an extreme dread the heart that deeply ponders them.
And indeed how could one represent unto himself those
eternal horrors without shuddering and trembling with
apprehension? Now when these sentiments of fear take
such root in our souls that they drive and banish
thence the affection and will to sin, as the sacred
Council of Trent speaks, they are certainly very
wholesome. We have conceived of thy fear, O Lord, and
have brought forth the spirit of salvation, is said
in Isaias.(7) That is, thy wrathful face terrified
us, and made us conceive and bring forth the spirit
of penance, which is the spirit of salvation; so did
the Psalmist say: There is no peace for my bones,
because of my sins, yea, they tremble, because of thy
wrath.(8)
Our Saviour, who came to establish the law of love
amongst us, ceases not to inculcate this fear: Fear
him, he says, that can destroy both soul and body
into hell.(9) The Ninivites did penance upon the
threat of their destruction and damnation, and their
repentance was agreeable to God; and, in a word, this
fear is comprised amongst the gifts of the Holy
Ghost, as many ancient Fathers have noted.
But if fear does not exclude the will of sinning and
affection for sin, it is certainly evil, and like to
that of the devils, who often cease to do harm for
fear of being tormented by exorcisms, without ceasing
to desire and will evil, which is their meditation
for ever; or it is like to that of the miserable
galley-slave, who would like to tear out his
overseer's heart, though he dares not stir from the
oar for fear of being lashed; or like to the fear of
that great heresiarch of the last century,(10) who
confessed that he hated a God who punished the
wicked.
Truly he who loves sin, and would willingly commit
it, in spite of the will of God, though he will not
commit it simply because he fears to be damned, has a
horrible and detestable fear: for though he has not
the will to execute the sin, yet he has the execution
of it in his will, since he would do it if fear held
him not back, and since it is as it were by force
that he does not put his will into effect.
To this fear we may add another, less malicious
indeed yet equally useless: such as that of the judge
Felix, who, hearing God's judgments spoken of, was
terrified;(11) yet he did not for all that give up
his avarice; and that of Baltassar, who, seeing that
miraculous hand which wrote his condemnation upon the
wall, was so struck with dread that his countenance
changed, and his thoughts troubled him: and the
joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees struck
one against the other:(12) and yet he did not do
penance. Now to what purpose do we fear evil, if our
fear does not make us resolve to avoid it?
The fear, then, of those who as slaves observe the
law of God to avoid hell, is very good; but much more
noble and desirable is the fear of mercenary
Christians, who, as hirelings, faithfully labour, yet
not principally for any love they bear their masters
but to be paid the wages promised them.
O! if the eye could see, if the ear could hear, or
if it could enter into the heart of man what God hath
prepared for those that serve him - Ah! what a dread
would one have of violating God's commandments, for
fear of losing those immortal rewards! what tears
would be shed, what groans would be uttered, when
they were lost by sin! Yet this fear would be
blameworthy if it contained in it the exclusion of
holy love; for he who should say: I will not serve
God for any love I intend to have for him, but only
to obtain the rewards he promises, - would commit
blasphemy, preferring the reward to the master, the
benefit to the benefactor, the inheritance to the
father, and his own profit to God Almighty, as we
have more amply shown in the second Book.
But, finally, when we are afraid of offending God not
to avoid the pains of hell or the loss of heaven, but
only because God being our good Father we owe him
honour, respect, obedience, then our fear is filial,
because a good child does not obey his father on
account of the power he has to punish his
disobedience, or because he might disinherit him, but
purely because he is his father; in such sort that
though his father might be old, powerless, and poor,
he would not serve him with less diligence, but
rather, like the bird of filial piety, would assist
him with the more care and affection.
So Joseph seeing that good man Jacob his father,
old, in want, and brought under his son's government,
ceased not to honour, serve and reverence him with a
tenderness more than filial, and which was so great
that his brothers having observed it, considered that
it would even operate after the father's death, and
therefore worked on it to obtain pardon from him,
saying: Your father commanded us before he died, that
we should say thus much to thee from him: I beseech
thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and
the sin and malice they practised against thee: we
also pray thee, to forgive the servants of the God of
thy father this wickedness. And when Joseph heard
this, he wept,(13) so readily did his filial heart
melt when his deceased father's wishes and will were
represented to him.
Those, therefore, fear God with a filial affection
who fear to displease him purely and simply because
he is their most sweet, most benign and most amiable
Father.
At the same time, when it happens that this filial
fear is joined, mingled and tempered with the servile
fear of eternal damnation, or with the mercenary fear
of losing heaven, it ceases not to be agreeable to
God, and is called a beginning fear, that is a fear
of such as are beginners and learners in the
exercises of divine love.
For as young boys when they first begin to ride,
feeling their horse curvet a little, not only cleave
close to him with their knees, but also catch hard
hold of the saddle with their hands, but after they
have had a little more practice simply press their
saddles close; even so, novices and apprentices in
God's service, finding themselves in desperate
straits amid the assaults which the enemy delivers at
the beginning, not only make use of filial but also
of mercenary and servile fear, and hold themselves on
as they can, that they may not fall from their
design.
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