Fear of the Lord

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, November 19th, 2023:
Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Psalm 128

R: Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord.

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. You shall eat the fruit of the labour of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.

R: Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. 

R: Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord.

Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. 

R: Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

I worked in youth ministry for many years, and one of the patterns I spotted early on was this: when a teen had a difficult relationship with their father, they often also struggled to have a healthy relationship with God. The language of God as a Father is deeply embedded into our faith, and when our human relationships are frail, it can have cascading implications for our relationship with God as well. It brought to light for me how fortunate I am to have my dad, whose unconditional love for me and desire to help me become the best version of myself has helped make me who I am. When I came to faith I had many stumbling blocks, but the idea of God as Father wasn’t one of my obstacles.
 
It's a blessing that has also helped me understand the idea of fear of the Lord. Some hear that term and imagine a vengeful God who delights in sending people to hell. Or they might be tempted into scrupulosity – obsessively examining every moment of their day, never measuring up. Others reflect on an all-encompassing God and feel small and insignificant next to Him. 
 
My perspective is different. I feared my dad as a kid at times, but not in the ways you might imagine. My parents were committed to having a peaceful home – I was never spanked, and they rarely even raised their voices at me. I was not scared of getting hurt, I never feared abandonment, I had no reason to think myself unimportant. My healthy fear was rooted in this loving relationship and in my desire to live up the potential that my dad saw in me. He knew what I was capable of, often before I did, and encouraged me to learn and grow. 
 
In Catholic tradition, fear of the Lord is often described as learning. It’s associated with the word discipline – a word that today evokes ideas of being scolded or punished, but is rooted in the idea of being a disciple, of sitting at the feet of a teacher for years. To be ready to learn, we first need to accept that we need to learn – we have to accept that we will have to try, fail, and try again, and without someone to help us, we’d be totally lost.
 
My fear of the Lord is not a fear that comes from Him, but a fear of being without Him. I know I need to be His disciple. If I think I’ve got all the answers and I don’t need Him, I have no need to learn – and that is a truly scary thought. What a blessing it is to be disciplined by Him, invited to sit at His feet, to be showered in His love as the core of change and growth. He is not like an earthly father who wants to hurt us, and He does not teach us to live in anxiety or fear. Our Heavenly Father invites us to live in and out of His love. 




Jenna Young

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