Why do some RC think they have to fear God?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Catholic : One Thread

Why do some RC think they have to fear God if it is Jesus himself saying that to love God is the greatest of all commandments? Mark12,29-31: "The most important one (commandment)", answered Jesus, "is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

-- luis gasser (l_gasser@hotmail.com), August 17, 1999

Answers

Luis - I was born in 1945 and underwent the changes that have occured this past half century. When I was a child there was the fear element drilled into our heads. Don't do this Don't do that which these days is understood as negative conditioning.

Being involved with the parish I see now where the children are taught to not fear God The Father as He is a gentle loving Father. I see smiles on many faces without the rote Baltimore Catacheism that I was taught.

I believe the approach is changing for the better for who wants to be afraid of their Father all their lives?+Peace+

-- jean bouchardRC (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), August 17, 1999.


Fear of God is healthy and essentially necessary. I believe authentic fear of God is the fear of disappointing or betraying. Fear of God leads one to despise sin and seek with vigor the graces necessary to live the "obedience of faith" and seek a perfect union with the Trinity through prayer, sacrament and contemplation.

Just as when we first fall in Love, and are courting the object of our desires, we make sure we are dressed and groomed to perfection. Even though a True Love would accept us unconditionally and overlook our flaws, we WANT to be pleasing to the lover. The breath spray in the pocket is sprayed before we ring the doorbell and a quick breath is blown into the hand to check the breath one last time - this is the fear of God.

-- ubi (ubi@petros.com), August 17, 1999.


Yes, ubi, this is the one fear to speak of in connection with God: the fear to hurt the one we love. This is a positive fear because it will ultimately contribute to our improvement. There are, however, voices amongst the RC community that preach a negative fear of God. Rather like the one Adam & Eve must have felt after eating from the forbidden tree. That fear is surely contrary to God's commandment.

-- luis gasser (l_gasser@hotmail.com), August 17, 1999.

You will be able to find some Catholics who even say abortion and contraception is licit - if you want to understand and criticize the Catholic Church go to a bookstore and drop $7 on the Universal Catechism. You can build up a "straw" church to criticize that is truly despicable, but in no way resembles the Catholic Church.

The fear Adam and Eve experienced is the same one I referred to above. The only difference is that their consciences were healthy enough to have the "grace of tears" or contrition. Same thing, fear of disappointing in the future and deep regret after doing so.

-- ubi (ubi@petros.com), August 18, 1999.


Ubi, why so overly sensitive why so hopelessly suspicious of everyone out there? That's a sign of fear and not of love. Let me remind you of 1COR13:1-13. Read it over and over again, you seem to have missed out on something very important. All I am interested in is to bring hypocrisy to light. Since this is a roman catholic forum I strictly refer to RC only. Being a roman catholic myself I want the RCC to shine bright by really following Jesus Christ's example and by being humble and loving towards all human beings, including non-catholics of course, as we are specifically instructed by Jesus himself. I want the RCC to give up its self-righteous, complacent and arrogant attidue and to finally do full justice to the message of Jesus Christ.

-- luis gasser (l_gasser@hotmail.com), August 18, 1999.


Luis,

Some food for thought I hope. I am sure that I do not have a full understand of how we are to both love and fear God, but there are sufficient scriptures to indicate that our relationship with Him must include both.

Consider Luke 12:5. Jesus Himself tells us to fear God. He uses the word "phobeo" whose primary meaning is "to frighten, to be alarmed", it also has meaning along the lines of "to be in awe of, to exceedingly revere". While I can embrace the secondary meaning as being much more acceptable within my understanding of God, when viewed in the example that Jesus uses, I cannot dismiss the primary meaning out of hand.

Perhaps Romans 11:22 can shed some light on it, "Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off." God remains, even in the New Covenant, both kind AND stern. Our acknowledgement of His nature is expressed through our both loving AND fearing him.

Just as God can be both merciful AND just, we are called to both love AND fear Him. They are not mutually exclusive in the context of God. Now, that doesn't mean one does not take precedence over the other. Certainly, we are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength as our prime directive, so to speak. But that does not necessarily mean we are to stop fearing Him.

Perhaps James 2:13 expresses the proper relationship between such diverse natures when it says "Mercy triumphs over judgement!". Because of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, he paid the price for our sins satisfying God's judgement. So when we are in Christ, we are embracing his mercy AND satisfying his judgement through Jesus. In a similar way, when we are loving God in accordance with the greatest commandment, we have also demonstrated that we fear God, for doesn't God's Word say that the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"? Certainly you would agree that to follow Jesus is wisdom (some might say the completion of wisdom), we never could have found him and decided to follow him if we had not started at the beginning and feared him.

We must also consider how God revealed Himself to the Israelites in the Old Testament (or as in your example, Adam and Eve). Without a doubt, God demonstrated that He is to be feared. And the Bible tells us that God does not change (Malachi 3:6). While Jesus revealed the truly sacrificial and unconditional nature of God's love, God remains just and that must never be forgotten. Too often we view the grace and forgiveness offered through Jesus and act as if we can continue sinning in expectation of his limitless grace. But if we are not actively pursuing holiness through Jesus (death to self and life through Christ), then we do not have his life in us and our faith and relationship with him is dead -- faith without works is indeed dead.

I don't think I expressed that very well. Frequently, I have an inner sense for such things that words fail to convey. Alas, I am not a theologian, sometimes I am thankful for that :-) Other times, I wish I had a better ability to articulate truth which perhaps could develop if I had the training and discipline of a theologian. Oh well, I am what I am.

God bless!

-- David Bowerman (dbowerman@blazenet.net), August 21, 1999.


Dear Luis, God is a the ultimate higher power. When we screw up things in our lives, especially deliberately, we would be very foolish not to fear God. He gave us life, free will and a beautiful world to live in. When we choose not to use our abilities or to sin, that is like slapping Him in the face. Personally, God gave me the ability to recognize a greater force than myself and the sense to know that I'm accountable for my actions. Fear is a good emotion if it keeps you on the right track. Ellen

-- Ellen K. Hornby (dkh@canada.com), August 24, 1999.

Perhaps I am the oddball here once more for I do not fear The Father as such rather I feel to obey Him follow the path His Son again pointed out respect His spouse (Church & Mary) do charitable acts and come to His Son whenever I am confused allows me to have a frame of midn I am doing my best as His adopted son. +Peace+

-- jean bouchardRC, (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), August 24, 1999.

Remember when your mom said, "Wait till your father gets home"? Well, it's kinda like that. You love your father, but still have a very healthy respect for his power. As we get older, and begin to understand our father better, the love increase and the fear decreases. Soon, we don't want to disobey our father out of love and respect, not fear. Hope this helps.

Yours in Christ,

Tom Caffrey

-- tom caffrey (mot246@ameritech.net), October 26, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ