Salesian Literature

Chapter 17  :  Servile fear can exist with charity

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Although the ladies I mentioned have no intention of leaving their needles in their work once it is done, they may well leave a needle sticking in some carnation, rose or pansy they happen to be embroidering, if they are force to pull it down; they do this so that they will find the instrument to hand when they come to take the work up again.

 

In the same way, as long as God’s providence is embroidering the virtues, working his charity on to the soul, he always leaves service or mercenary fear there.  Only when charity becomes perfect does he take out this sharp needle and put it back (so to speak) in its case.  During this life, therefore, in which charity is never so perfect as to be safe and sure, fear is ever necessary.  While love causes us to thrill with joy, we must have fear to keep us anxiously on our guard.

 

Whatever temptations charity fails to rout are overthrown by the fear of damnation.  Suppose I am beset by temptations to pride, to avarice, or to some sensual pleasure … “Surely, “ I tell myself, “I am not going to forfeit God’s grace of things that are so empty!”  If this is not enough, charity stirs up fear: “Watch out now, wretch; if you give way to this temptation, the frightful flames of hell await you; you will lose the eternal inheritance of heaven.”  A man will try anything in the last resort: as Jonathan did when he scaled the sheer sharp rocks lying between himself and the Philistines – he not only used his feet to climb up, but crawled upon his hands and knees as best as he could.

 

Mariners, if they set sail when wind and weather are fair, do not forget cables, anchors and other things needed in time of storm or peril.  So it is with the servant of God: though he may be enjoying the peace and charm of charity, he must never be without the fear of God’s judgements, to fall back on it amid the stormy onslaughts of temptation.

 

After all, an apple skin has little value in itself, but it is a great protection for the apple it covers.  Servile fear, in the same way, though of small account in comparison with charity, is extremely useful for preserving it during the dangers of this mortal life.

 

Now, although a servile or mercenary fear is very helpful in this life, it is quite unworthy of a place in the next.  In heaven we shall know safety without fear, peace without uncertainty, rest without anxiety.  For all that, however, the services which such fear renders charity in this world will have their reward.  Servile or mercenary fear, as it were another Moses or Aaron, may not enter the promised land; but their issue, the deeds for which they are responsible, find a home there.

 

As to filial fear, as to the fear a lover knows, there will be a place for these – not to disquiet or perplex the soul, but to fill it full of wonder, to endow it with a reverent submission to the inconceivable majesty of the Father almighty, the bridegroom of glory.

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