Real fear is
at the least unnerving. More often,
stomach knotting, hand freezing fear is debilitating and can give rise to
spontaneous, maybe irrational, actions which can be valiant or destructive in
nature, often with life changing consequences.
The news abounds with reports of soldiers and police and firefighters
who, despite great personal fear, perform feats of heroism; of politicians and
business executives who fear losing power, position and wealth and choose to
lie and cast blame on others rather than admit to their own corruption, greed,
and criminal behavior.
The First
Letter of John contrasts the relationship between love and fear. "Love has no room
for fear; rather, perfect love casts out all fear" (1 John 5:5-13). But, knowing the human condition, can we
really take this literally and believe that love and fear can’t co-exist? Or does John mean that natural human fear is
the result of imperfect love? Or, then
again, is it our inability to understand and accept the totality of God’s love
for us that leads us to fear?
John refers
to the fear that results from the certainty of punishment but for people
sincerely trying to live abiding in the love of God, situations giving rise to
natural human fear are much less threatening. When we know that we remain in
God and God remains in us, then we, like St. Paul, realize that ultimately nothing
can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:39). Ultimately,
we have nothing to fear.
However,
even beyond the obvious fear of violence, there is much to fear in our country
today due to the pandemic, loneliness, systemic racism, and overwhelming
hostility to anyone who disagrees with us.
But for people rooted in the love of God and trying to live in the
awareness of that love, any fear will be overshadowed by the confidence and
trust in the love that we know and believe God has for us.
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