Pints With Aquinas - 55: What does it mean to fear the Lord?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Pints with Aquinas depends on your support. If you're an awesome person and want to prove it, go to pintswithaquinas.com, click the Patreon banner, and there you can learn how to support the show for as little as $2 a month. Every dollar helps, and we are grateful for your support. Welcome to Pints with Aquinas, episode 54. I'm Matt Fradd. Welcome to Pints with Aquinas, episode 54. I'm Matt Fradd. If you could sit down with St. Thomas Aquinas over a pint of beer and ask him any one question, what would it be? In today's episode, we'll ask St. Thomas, if faith casts out fear, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, does that mean that faith casts out the beginning of wisdom? Welcome back to Pints with Aquinas. This is the show where you and I pull up a

Starting point is 00:01:02 barstool next to the angelic doctor to discuss theology and philosophy. Before we get into today's show, I want to let you know that today's episode is actually sponsored by Holy Apostles College and Seminary, which is a dynamic Catholic liberal arts college and seminary devoted to the formation of future priests and lay leaders in the Catholic community. Holy Apostles offers associate, bachelor of arts, master of arts and PhD programs on campus or 100% online. At $320 per credit hour, Holy Apostles' tuition rate is 72% lower than the average private liberal arts college because they believe that a debt-free graduate is a gift to the church and society. So, you can learn more at holyapostles.edu. Today, we're going to be talking about fear. Now, in the beginning of this episode, I ran a

Starting point is 00:01:59 syllogism by you. Perhaps I ran it by you rather quickly. So, let me go over it again and I'll show you what I mean. We are told, aren't we, that faith casts out fear, okay? But we're also told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So, wouldn't it follow, therefore, that faith casts out the beginning of wisdom? No. And the reason is, as you may have guessed, if you've listened to previous shows, we've talked about logical fallacies and so forth. We're equivocating on the word fear in that syllogism. Equivocate means to use a term in two or more different senses. When you and I use the word fear, we typically mean three things, and I'll get into them right after we read Aquinas. But those three things are a sort of servile fear where we fear punishment or pain. Then there's a filial fear, and this is the fear of offending or losing a friend, be they divine or human.

Starting point is 00:03:05 And finally, a reverential fear. And that is the sort of respect or wonder that one has in the presence of something magnificent or gigantic. And those three terms there, servile fear, filial fear, and reverential fear are terms Aquinas uses. So, let's take a look at one of the articles, and then we'll delve into this a little deeper. Now, we're going to be reading today from the Secundae Secundae, which is Latin for the second part of the second part of the Summa Theologiae, question seven, article one, is fear an effect of faith?

Starting point is 00:03:47 In other words, does faith cause fear? Let's see what Aquinas says. Faith is a cause of the fear whereby one dreads to be punished by God, and this is servile fear. It is also the cause of filial fear, whereby one dreads to be separated from God, or whereby one shrinks from equaling himself to him and holds him in reverence, inasmuch as faith makes us appreciate God as an unfathomable and supreme good, separation from which is the greatest evil. Of the first fear, that is servile fear, lifeless faith is the cause,

Starting point is 00:04:44 while living faith is the cause of the second, That is filial fear. So, let's go back to those three ways in which we use the word fear. Servile fear is when we fear being punished, either justly or unjustly, or when we fear pain. And the reason it's called servile fear is the language has to do with that of a slave or a servant. The second way we use fear is, which is filial fear, is when we are afraid of losing or offending a beloved friend. And, you know, I feel this way in regards to my wife. I love her and I want to be good to her and serve her. And I would fear offending her and fear losing her. And that is different in a sense to the first way in which we use the term. Now, the third way we use the term has to do with, as I say, reverential fear.

Starting point is 00:05:42 So, wonder or reverence or awe. It's something that is seemingly immeasurably superior to us. When I lived in San Diego, I used to go surfing at least once a week. It was a fun time. Man, I miss the ocean. And I remember occasionally catching a wave that was too big for me and this fear came over me. Now, was it a servile fear in the sense, was I afraid of getting hurt? Yes, yes. But it was also different. It was intermingled with this reverence, this wonder at something much bigger than me. It's the sort of fear that we have in a thunderstorm. Even when you know that you're safe, right? And you hear the thunder booming outside of your house.

Starting point is 00:06:31 There's this sense of reverence, this recognition of how small you are and how big it is and so forth. We also see an example of this sort of fear described in the book of Revelation. And this is Revelation chapter 1, verse 13 through 18. Listen to John, St. John's reaction at encountering the person of Jesus Christ. He says, And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle around his breast, his head and his hair were white, as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of many waters. And what is John's reaction to this?

Starting point is 00:07:40 Verse 17. this? Verse 17, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, right? So, it's that reverential fear. John goes on to say, but he laid his right hand upon me saying, fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forever, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Powerful stuff, huh? I'm going to read you something from C.S. Lewis. If you haven't read his book, The Problem of Pain, do yourself a favor and get it. It's not a very big book. I'm holding it here. It's just over a hundred pages, but it's the sort of book that the more you read it, the more you get out of it. And it's terrific. And in the introduction to this book, C.S. Lewis talks about what he calls the numinous, which is getting to that third sort of fear, that reverential fear that one ought to have towards God. So, let me read it to you.

Starting point is 00:08:47 Lewis says this, and this will help you understand this numinous fear. If you haven't heard of it or read about it before, it'll help you recognize it in your own life. Lewis says, okay, suppose you were told that there was a tiger in the next room. Suppose you were told that there was a tiger in the next room. You would know that you're in danger and you would probably feel fear. But if you were told there is a ghost in the next room and believed it, you would feel indeed what is often called fear, but of a different kind. It would not be based on the knowledge of danger, for no one is primarily afraid of what a ghost may do to him, but of the mere fact that it is a ghost. It is uncanny

Starting point is 00:09:35 rather than dangerous, and the special kind of fear it excites may be called dread. I just want to pause there a moment. I'm going to continue in a second, but that immediately made me think of the X-Files. Any X-Files fans out there? And maybe something similar where it is the uncanniness that elicits a sort of fear in the third sense. And I mean, maybe it was also true of Lost. Do you remember Lost? There was this sense that there was something much larger out there that brought about this fear. It's an exciting type of fear because we're being caught up in something bigger than us. But notice that whenever that thing that we thought was bigger than us is revealed to us and we then find out that it wasn't bigger than us, we're kind of disappointed and that fear vanishes.

Starting point is 00:10:29 So, I'm thinking of the others. You remember the others on Lost? We didn't know who these people were, where they came from. There was something kind of spiritual or other to them that we just couldn't figure out. And then all of a sudden, you realize it's this group of people doing book studies and whatever. And the numinous fear that you felt vanished. And then maybe it was a sort of servile fear on behalf of the main protagonists of the show. But it was no longer a numinous sort of reverential fear.

Starting point is 00:11:06 All right, now let's continue here with what Lewis says. He says, With the uncanny, one has reached the fringes of the numinous. Now, suppose you were told simply, there is a mighty spirit in the room, and believed it. Your feelings would then be even less like the mere fear of danger, but the disturbance would be profound. You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking, a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant and of prostration before it, an emotion which might be expressed in Shakespeare's words,

Starting point is 00:11:48 under it my genius is rebuked. This feeling may be described as awe, and the object which excites it as the numinous. Now do you see? So once again, since repetition is the key to learning, those three types of fear would be servile fear, filial fear, reverential fear. Servile fear being the fear of punishment or pain. Filial fear being the fear of offending or losing a loved one. Reverential fear being that sort of reverence and awe that we have in the presence of something immeasurably greater than us. And this is the fear that one ought to hold towards God. If we don't experience it, then we fall into the trap of treating God like a buddy, right? Like someone who helps us out in times of trouble. We treat

Starting point is 00:12:49 God like a hobby. He's there if we need Him or we find particular interest in Him or in prayer, but we don't revere Him. Well, we ought to revere Him. We ought to fear the Lord and it's this fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Now, one could say that all of these fears, you know, can be beneficial to our faith walk. So, even servile fear, which is what we all sort of begin with, to one degree or another, when we enter a relationship with God. to one degree or another, when we enter a relationship with God. But when we read that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, what is it talking about there, right, in Proverbs 9.10? Well, I think first of all, it's talking about that third one,

Starting point is 00:13:38 that awe. And I remember as a small child going into our cathedral in my hometown of Port Pirie in South Australia. And I remember experiencing that fear. It was something about the sense of the reverence. And it was actually an empty church. So, it was empty. I'm a small kid in a large building, which I know I ought to have reverence in, you know, display reverence in. And I remember being really freaked out and sort of like running out of the church. I think this just goes to show why it's so important that our churches should be beautiful

Starting point is 00:14:16 and not ugly. There are many ugly churches, aren't there? They look like Pizza Hut or Pizza Haven, just these big, ugly, awful-looking, communist art, concrete things. And they don't inspire reverence. They don't inspire awe. And churches ought to do that. It's appropriate that we experience reverence and awe in the presence of the Eucharist. And having architecture and having music that helps elicit that, I think is appropriate. But we're certainly talking here, or the scriptures are talking here when it talks about fear of the Lord as the third kind, awe, reverence before

Starting point is 00:14:59 this beautiful God. It's also talking about the second kind, the fear of offending God who is good. Because one might have a sense of wonder in the presence of a spirit mightier than him, okay? But unless he knows that that spirit is good, he's not going to have filial fear. He won't care if he loses this sort of spirit. But if he knows that this thing immeasurably greater than him is good and is indeed the one who created him and destined him for eternal life, then he'll also experience that second fear. Now, the first fear, servile fear, is primitive. We're meant to outgrow it. It's something we all experience at the beginning, as I said, in our Christian walk, but it is meant to be something we outgrow.

Starting point is 00:15:50 And that's why St. John says in 1 John 4.18, perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. Now, you'll notice from what we read a moment ago from St. Thomas Aquinas, that he connects servile fear with dead faith and filial fear with living faith. Here's what Aquinas said yet again. He says, of the first fear that is servile fear, lifeless faith is the cause, while living faith is the cause of the second. So, dead faith is merely intellectual and legalistic belief. And that's why it says in James chapter 2 verse 19, you know, do you believe that God is one? Well, good for you. The demons also believe, but shudder with fear. Here's a quotation from George MacDonald, talking about how fear has its place, even

Starting point is 00:16:56 servile fear. He says, quote, where there are wild beasts about, it is better to feel afraid than to feel secure. And this is why Christ tells us to fear the devil. Okay. It wouldn't be a sign of tremendous faith not to fear the devil since it's our Lord who tells us that we should do that. In Matthew 10, 28, he says, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. We read the same thing in 1 Peter 5, verse 8, where St. Peter says that the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking

Starting point is 00:17:39 for someone to devour. Peter Crave says that this fear, of course, doesn't mean cowardice or running away. It actually means the opposite. It means fighting. The devil is the coward. He is more afraid of us or rather of Christ in us than we are of him. So, let me suggest a couple of ways you might encounter the Lord in this powerful way. And it might be done by making some changes in the environment in which we choose to pray, or the environment in which we choose to place ourselves in when we pray. And this isn't emotional sort of manipulation. This is just preparing ourselves to encounter God. You know, for example, if you think of sleep, okay, sleep, it's not like you have control over sleep in the sense like, I'm going to go to sleep now. No, but you do certain things

Starting point is 00:18:43 to make sleep come on. Okay, so you might brush your teeth, you might turn the lights off, you might lay in a comfy bed, you might listen to soft music, right? This is the environment that is conducive to sleep. And I think likewise, we can create an environment that's conducive to experiencing the Lord and experiencing that numinous, that reverential fear that one ought to have towards Him. So, this is something I do at my house. We turn the lights off and we have candles on this little altar that we've set up in one of our prayer rooms. And there's something about the mystery of it all that I think elicits a sort of wonder and reverence. I mean, to show you what I mean, suppose you went to a beautiful dark crypt, you know, and it was candlelight everywhere.

Starting point is 00:19:37 And then someone blew out all the candles and put a bunch of neon lights on because, hey, it's brighter. There's something about that that misses the point, you know, that for some reason, holy places are dark places because it's where we encounter the other who we do not fully comprehend. So, I'd say, you know, the environment in which you pray can help. That might even mean going out into nature, standing before a waterfall or in a mountain range and spending time there encountering the mystery of the other. It also might mean praying more traditional prayers that use language that's more mysterious and again, that elicits that response. And thirdly, it might mean listening to music that does the same. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with listening to beautiful music

Starting point is 00:20:26 by Matt Marr and Hillsong and Audrey Assad, but there's other sorts of music that move us in a different way, like Gregorian chant. So, those are just a couple of suggestions, take them or leave them. But I hope that that's a help. Now you know that, yes, you know, the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord, but at the same time, perfect love drives out all fear and that those things don't contradict each other. Thank you so much for listening to Pints with Aquinas this week. I hope you've enjoyed it. Do us a favor, follow us on Facebook. Go to our website, pintswithaquinas.com. Follow me on Twitter. Just type in Pints with Aquinas and you'll find our Twitter handle. And let us know what you're thinking of

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Pints With Aquinas - 55: What does it mean to fear the Lord?

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