Fear Not (Trinitarian article)

Fear not

Fr. Tony’s Letter to the Trinitarians

November 2017

“Jesus replied, ‘Do not fear.  Just trust.’”  Luke 8:50

Fear is a common emotion.  It is a normal, understandable feeling, given to us over the millennia by the evolutionary process to help keep us from harm.  But it can drive out most other emotions, be they trust, love, confidence, or a sense of peace or well-being.   Courage is not so much a lack of fear, but the will to carry on and do what one must despite fear:  grace under fire. 

What are we afraid of?  It usually is summed up under three great headings:  fear of loss of safety or control, fear of loneliness and isolation, and fear of being unworthy or being discovered as a fraud.  

We like to be in control, we like to arrange things so that risk is minimized and safety maximized.  When this is threatened, we fear.  I remember one night as a young man in France having missed a connection with a colleague who had agreed to keep me overnight before a working visit in another city.  The weight of the big, scary, and cold world came down on my shoulders and I suffered what is probably best described as a panic attack.  Fear immobilized me and made me wholly unable to cope.  It was only several hours later, once the panic had burned out, that I realized that indeed I had come to the right address; the hosts simply had not been able to hear the doorbell.  I knocked louder, and the problem was resolved.    Fear of loss of control can turn us into control freaks, way too obsessed with having all the little details just so, and unable to work gracefully or productively with others.  We can become morbidly concerned with all the ways we might lose control, safety, and life itself.

Fear of loneliness or isolation—more specifically, fear of rejection—can also cripple us.  It is one of the main obstacles in actually establishing good relationships with others, whether these be collegial, friendly, or romantic.  We come across as needy, or controlling, or overly solicitous to the point of creepiness.  We might become a people pleaser—so worried about what others think of us that we lose any integrity or wholeness we might have had.  Such fear can bring about the very thing it seeks to avoid. 

Fear of being discovered as a fraud, or of being found unworthy of the good things with which we have been blessed, can also be crippling.  We end up expending all our effort at covering up what is, perhaps, apparent to all.

In the face of all of these, Jesus says, “Fear not.”   Embracing risk because we trust God is at the heart of it:  “take up your cross and follow me!”  I once heard a fellow priest counsel a person in my care that despite all the terrible illness and threats the person faced, “all will be well—I promise you.”  I was somewhat shocked, wondering how he could promise health in the face of what the doctors were calling a terminal illness.  But then it dawned on me—my colleague was speaking from the heart of his faith.  He was talking about how things would end up, not how they might appear in a day or a week.  The resurrection of Christ is our ground for hope, or great shield against fear.  Our Christian faith is that in the end, all will be well.  If all is not well, it is not yet the end. 

Thanks be to God.