Fear

So I just got back from my very first visit to the Holy Land last Sunday and so people have been asking me what it was like. Perhaps the best description I can come up with is that it is like visiting your best friend’s hometown for the first time and getting to see the home he grew up in and to see all the different places that were influential to him. I felt like I got to know my best friend even more than I do now. To walk where Jesus walked, to sit where Jesus probably sat, to see where he called the disciples, and where he taught them the Our Father and the Beatitudes. But I think for me, personally, there was nothing more powerful than to stand in the very spot where Jesus died for me on the cross. I found myself overwhelmed with tears. “Here, in this place, the God of the universe, died for me.”

Wow... When was the last time you were overwhelmed by God like that?

I think sometimes, we can forget just how awesome and great God is. We can come to Mass and come to the altar and receive God in the Eucharist and then walk away with no real effect. 

Moses, in the first reading, has something like one of these moments. At this point in Exodus, Moses is 80 years old. If you remember the story of Moses, he was rescued & raised in Egypt by Pharaoh’s daughter for the first 40 years and then seeing one of his Hebrew man being attacked, he struck and killed the Egyptian. Then he flees into the desert for fear of his life, He then spends the next 40 years of his life as a shepherd in the desert with his family before God calls him to set the Hebrew people free. Then as we know, he spends 40 years leading the people through the desert to the promise Land. 

And so Moses today is still a simple shepherd living in the desert and so one day while shepherding, he sees from the corner of his eye a burning bush. So when he looks at it, and the fire isn’t consuming the bush, the scriptures says, “He was surprised”... He was like, “hmm, that’s different.” And so he goes over to look closer and all of a sudden the burning bush starts talking to him! And it’s God! And God says to him “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers...”

And then overwhelmed, Moses hides his face, for he was afraid to look at God... 

Moses not only sees a talking burning bush that isn't being consumed by the fire... but the God of the universe, the God of creation has come down to him in this fire.  And Moses is filled with the “Fear of the Lord.” It is not a fear for his life but rather and overwhelming experience of the presence of God's goodness and mercy. 

And this “fear of the Lord” is a gift. In fact it's one of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit that we receive in Confirmation! Yes, FEAR... of the Lord... is a gift! And it is a gift that I think we need to ask for... It's my birthday next week, and you know, I'd be happy to receive some "Fear of the Lord." That'll be awesome...

But what is the “Fear of the Lord”? Well I’ll tell you what it is not. It is not living in fear that God will punish me if I don’t behave. And so we need to make sure we don’t do anything wrong or else God will set me straight. NO! God is not some being spying and trying to catch us slipping up. That’s not who and what God is.

Instead, the gift of the Fear of the Lord is a sensitivity of who God is and his overwhelming presence. It is to realize that God is a really good Father, that “the Lord is kind and merciful,” and that all of creation comes forth from his love. When Moses asks God for his name, God responds by saying, “I am who am.” God is existence itself, but not only that God is the “God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob...” God is the God that has always been “for us”. He is the one that pursues us time and time again. The one who was with and for Abraham, for Isaac and for Jacob. God is the God who is willing to come down into a little bush and bother to encounter a simple man living as a shepherd with his family.

And as we shall see, God is a God that loves us so much, that he will send his own Son into to the world to become one of us and to redeem us through his passion, death and resurrection. 

Brothers and sisters, “Fear of the Lord” is the knowledge of just how awesome and loving and kind and merciful God is, and because of that, the knowledge of the danger of sin’s ability to separate us from that God. That’s why Jesus warns us “if you do not repent, you will perish!” If you don’t repent, if you don’t turn away from sin, you’ll find yourself separated from God! This is not necessarily because God punishes us, but because of the very nature of sin itself. Sin is simply a turning away from God. And so repentance is turning back to God.

Over there in the Holy Land, standing at Calvary where Jesus died for me, I was struck with the Fear of the Lord, I was struck with awe and wonder that God would love us so much that he would carry the cross and be crucified for my sake. I pray I never turn away from such a loving and merciful God. 

Today, as you approach the altar, pray for the gift of the “Fear of the Lord”. Pray that you may be filled with awe and wonder at the love and mercy of Christ in the Eucharist. And I pray that when you find yourself separated from him because of sin, that the fear of the Lord gives you the confidence to repent, to turn back around and to run back into the awesome and marvelous love of God.