When I was in high school, a whole new line of clothing came out that was called, “No Fear”. It is a good slogan, however, it didn’t work. We were still afraid, insecure teenagers, whether we wore the shirt or not. Fear is a very powerful thing in our lives and it seems to be getting more and more common. There are more anxiety disorders, more medication. It is so common that most of us do not even know how fear really motivates us and drives us. Think of marketing. The skill behind the success of modern marketing is fear, making people feel like they don’t belong, creating inadequacy and then selling to it. Many of the things we are commonly doing in most of our lives are done because of the fear of the world. TV watching, in most cases, video gaming, addiction to drugs, sex, technology addictions, Twitter, Snap Chat, Facebook. Many of our relationships and our interactions are fear based. I believe smoking is a fear based habit. Eating to excess, yelling at spouses, abusive relationships all are motivated by fear. Fear of the world and being rejected by it rule our lives and we think it is a normal thing.
I know what I am saying is bold and that you would maybe like me to substantiate my claims. I will try my best because it is what I recognize in my life, so it could be me. However, how many times have you given up something that you valued because you were afraid? Let’s take watching TV or Netflix for example. Many people get lost in programs and watching them becomes even more important than health, such as getting sleep or eating properly or spending quality time with your family and loved ones. Why? Because we need the distraction from life. Why do we need the distraction? Because we fear the world, the judgement, the acceptance. How many people own things they can’t afford. Why would you go through something like that, the stress of being swamped in debt, having to exist, because you have bought something? Why did you do that? Fear. How many people have given up ideals they had to be in a relationship, not demanding your value but accepting a hard and unfair relationship because of fear? Look at addictions – all are based in fear. We want to escape the reality we fear – life – so we run to a multitude of different things. How many unhuman things has fear forced us to? Why do we have to run from reality and why are we living life outside of God’s law? Because of fear of the world. This is a shocker to me, too. Because we are afraid of the world, we don’t fear God and therefore we are forced to be running, to be distracted, to need to take trips physically or emotionally or otherwise. We need to legalize marijuana, not because it is good for us (perhaps it has some small benefits), but because we are afraid. We are stuck in bad relationships, in unreasonable debt, in addiction, in distraction because we fear the world. I experience it so many times. In schools, parents are afraid to talk to teachers about their children’s problems. In workplaces, we want to complain but we don’t want to do anything. We can’t stand up for ourselves and our children because fear rules our life. We are not afraid to offend God though who is in charge of eternal life, but we fear the world, which, in the big picture, can do little to us. We fear the world and we sin to please it and hurt ourselves even more.
However, there is a solution to this whole fear thing. You and I can cast off the fear of the world by doing one thing. Start praying to fear God with our whole heart. To fear God is not like fearing the world. To fear God means to desire not to displease Him. What would happen if we chose and prayed for this grace? Freedom. Why? Because everything that displeases God is harmful to you so you would choose to do what is good holy and wholesome for yourself because not doing it displeases God. We are harmed because we love the world more than we properly love and seek the good for ourselves. We don’t seek the good for ourselves because we don’t love ourselves and we don’t love ourselves because we don’t fear God. It says in Sacred Scripture to fear the Lord is the first stage on wisdom. Apparently it is written in Scripture not to fear 366 times, one for every day of the year, even leap year is covered. God is passionate about us fearing one thing and that is God. Only when we fear Him alone will we be free. Watch yourself then next time you do something you don’t want to do, like eating more than you wanted to or slept longer than you wanted to, and start simply looking to see where the fear was in your life that drove you to choose the harmful thing and you will see what I am taking about. Go further and look at the times when you were mean to your spouse and see how fear drove that. Fear of God will change that. You wouldn’t dare treat your spouse that way when you fear God and know that God is their father who watches everything you do and could beat you down at any moment. Fear the Lord and you will be free. What does the fear of the Lord look like? It looks like this: to love the Lord with your whole heart, mind, body and soul and to love your neighbour as yourself. If we are not doing this, it is because we don’t fear God but rather the world.
How do we fear God? We pray and pray for this grace. We ask our Guardian Angel to remind us to pray each time we find ourselves inclined to give into harmful stuff. Pray and pray for fear of the Lord and we will find freedom. This is why we are commanded to fear God because to fear God is freedom, and we all want to be free.