Fear

Fear is the soul’s disturbance before an evil that approaches. Scripture knows it under every form: fear of danger, fear of men, fear of death, and even that fear of God born of sin. And it never treats it alone: each time it names fear, it gives in the same breath its remedy. To the father just told of his daughter’s death, Jesus says everything in one phrase: “Fear nothing, only believe.” Mark 5:36. Fear and faith stand face to face, and the remedy of the first is the second: trust in God. This road runs from the broken trust of Adam, who hides among the trees, to the perfect love that casts out fear.

The broken trust

The first fear of Scripture follows immediately upon the first sin. Man eats the fruit, and the voice of God in the garden becomes the one he flees. “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I am naked; and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10. Sin turns God’s presence into a threat: this fear is not the creature before its Creator, it is the sinner before the one he has offended, a trust broken. And God’s first movement is to seek him: “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9. The whole history of salvation labours to remake the trust that sin has broken, and that is why its most repeated word will be: do not be afraid.

“Do not be afraid”: a presence to rely on

This answer runs through both Testaments, and each time it gives its motive. To Abraham: “Fear not, Abram: I am your shield.” Genesis 15:1. To Joshua entering the promised land: “Be without fear and without dread, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9. To Israel in exile: “Fear not, for I am with you; do not look about in dismay, for I am your God.” Isaiah 41:10. To Mary: “Fear not, Mary, for you have found favour with God.” Luke 1:30. To the shepherds of Bethlehem: “Fear not, for I bring you news of a great joy.” Luke 2:10. To the disciples, by night, upon the sea: “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.” Matthew 14:27. The motive is each time the same. God does not say that the danger does not exist; he says that he is there. The “do not be afraid” of Scripture gives someone to rely on: the word that drives out fear is a presence. “Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me.” Psalm 23:4. And the fear felt can dwell with faith: the psalmist holds them together and makes the one a road toward the other. “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Psalm 56:4.

Trust is an act

The trust Scripture sets against fear is an act one performs: to place oneself in the hands of God. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5. “Cast your lot upon the Lord, and he will sustain you.” Psalm 55:23. “Cast upon him all your cares, for he himself takes care of you.” 1 Peter 5:7. Jesus founds this act on the Father and his providence: “Look at the birds of the sky: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” Matthew 6:26. The Father knows what his children need; theirs is to seek first the Kingdom, and the rest will be given besides. “Have no care, then, for the morrow: the morrow will care for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:34. And Paul describes the exchange that takes place when worry becomes prayer: “Be anxious about nothing; but in everything make your needs known to God by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7. Fear carried to God returns as peace.

When fear takes the place of trust

Fear is a passion, a movement man does not choose; it becomes sin when one obeys it against God, that is, when it occupies in the soul the place of trust. In the storm, Christ does not reproach the disciples for their trouble, he reproaches the place the trouble has taken: “Why are you afraid, men of little faith?” Matthew 8:26. Fear has taken in them the place of faith. Fear can also be mistaken about God. In the parable of the talents, a master entrusts his goods to his servants before leaving on a journey; one of them, imagining a hard master, buries what he received instead of making it bear fruit: “I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.” Matthew 25:25. His fear was born of a false image of the master, and it made his gift barren. And Peter, who swore to die with his master, denies him before a servant girl: “I do not know this man.” Matthew 26:72. Consented fear undid in one night the oath to die with him.

The fear of the Lord, the face of trust

The Scripture that repeats “do not be afraid” nonetheless commands a fear. “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.” Proverbs 9:10. This fear is the reverence of the child before the greatness of his Father: it dreads offending the one it loves and being parted from him, where servile fear dreads only punishment. It is the face that trust takes before the greatness of God: the child who fears to offend his Father is the very one who relies on him. The Spirit himself gives it, and the Messiah makes it his delight. “Upon him shall rest the Spirit of the Lord [...] the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; he shall find his delight in the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:2-3. A fear of which one makes one’s delight no longer resembles fear: it is love itself before the greatness of God. So it remains when all trouble has ceased. “The fear of the Lord is holy: it endures for ever.” Psalm 19:10.

Do not fear those who kill the body

That fear delivers from all the others. “Do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul; fear rather the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28. Christ does not deny that men can kill; he sets each fear at its measure. He who fears God has no master among the threats: the martyrs showed it, who walked to their torment without anyone having power over them. And the same page turns fear into tenderness, giving this freedom its foundation: trust in the Father who counts the sparrows and the hairs of the head. “Do not be afraid, then: you are worth more than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:31. The fear of God does not crush the soul: it sets it under a gaze that keeps it.

The fear of Christ

Christ knew fear. At Gethsemane, on the threshold of the Passion: “He began to feel dread and dismay, and he said to them: My soul is sorrowful unto death.” Mark 14:33-34. The Son of God did not pass through our condition as a spectator: he took the fear of dying, the real one, to the point of sweating blood. “Being in agony, he prayed the more earnestly, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Luke 22:44. His fear did not command: it became prayer. “In the days of his flesh, he offered, with a loud cry and tears, prayers and supplications to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard for his piety.” Hebrews 5:7. He carried fear all the way to the Father and gave him his will. Since then, fear is no longer a place without God: Christ has passed through it.

Perfect love casts out fear

The end of the road is deliverance. “There is no fear in love: perfect love casts out fear, for fear supposes punishment, and he who fears is not perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18. The fear that love casts out is servile fear, that of punishment, the text says it itself; filial fear remains, because it is the love that reveres. “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of strength, of love and of wisdom.” 2 Timothy 1:7. On the eve of his Passion, at the very hour when fear was about to scatter his own, Christ promises: “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27.