Fear of the Lord

Today is the Feast of the Birth of Mary

Is. 11:1-3

“and his (Jesus) delight shall be the fear of the Lord.”

Scripture tells us that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” and yet fear of the Lord is one of those things that people have the most trouble wrapping their minds around. Certainly, the Greek word we translate as “fear” can mean “to be afraid.” But in the context of knowing God it can and should, in my estimation, be translated to mean “being in awe” of the divine.

The prophesy from Isaiah from the reading today (MP) tells us that Jesus’ own delight is fear of the Lord. Fear of his Father? Fear of his own nature? Hardly, the only proper interpretation here has to be that of awe.

If fear of the Lord meant to be afraid of God then our faith would be built upon a God who is not love but rage. as though God would be waiting for us to fail, to screw up so that he could drop the hammer on us as it were. Would the God who gave up his only Son for our sake possibly take pleasure in our punishment, in our demise? Would the God, who hears the cry of the poor, use threats to get his children to do the right thing?

Personally, I want to do the right thing because it is the right thing. I want to do God’s will out of love for Him, not out of fear of damnation.

In the final scenes of the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” just when the spaceship appears, the main character, Roy Neary, doesn’t show fear at all. He is awestruck, even joyful. He is drawn to it and wants to join it – be one with it.

Fear of the Lord is something like that.

Fear of the Lord is being able to stand awestruck, yet unafraid before the immensity of the divine persons and be drawn into the light of eternal love. It is to be touched in such a way that we don’t cower in fear or hide our faces in shame but are drawn joyfully closer and closer until in the end we find our ultimate peace and our life in the One who loved us from all eternity.