“Jeremiah said: ‘I hear the whisperings of many:

‘Terror on every side!

Denounce! let us denounce him!’

All those who were my friends

are on the watch for any misstep of mine.

‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,

and take our vengeance on him.’

But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion…’”

“Jesus said to the Twelve: ‘Fear no one…

Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?

Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.

Even all the hairs of your head are counted.

So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’”

We all feel fear. It is beyond the scope of this article and beyond my competence to give a comprehensive understanding of fear, but it is common to us and it is complex. It can be a physiological response to stimuli, which is an evolutionary gift for survival, or an emotional response to real, perceived, or imagined objects, situations, people, activities, or other things. We can even fear fear. As a feeling, it may be experienced negatively or positively, and may be considered fun when we watch a scary movie, ride a rollercoaster, or get up to preach a meaningful and true to God’s word homily each week. Negatively, it can cloud our thinking, inhibit appropriate responses, cause us to avoid the source of fear, or lead to detrimental behavioral or health outcomes. It is complex and it is common. It’s not always bad, nor is it always good. In the balance, however, I would say for me, most of the time, fear has led to limitations. Coping with, managing, or overcoming fear (not numbing or suppressing, however) expands our horizons and freedom. Embracing it and transforming it by God’s grace, as through death and resurrection, has allowed me a greater capacity to love and to be loved. 

Perhaps, that is why one of the most common admonitions that Jesus gives us in the Gospels is, “Do not be afraid.” Obviously, it is not and admonition to never experience fear, but to trust God, as Jesus himself did in Gethsemane, in the midst of the fear and choose the path of love. Forged in the fires of my own personal trials, I have a great trust in God’s providence. Introduced by the rector of the seminary on my first day, he admonished us, “Trust the providence that brought you here.” Time and time again, in the midst of uncertainty, tragedy, pain, and threats, I have sought to practice that trust and choose the path of love. It is a confidence that God loves us, that he is with us, and that, somehow, often in ways I can’t comprehend or perceive in the moment, God is at work. It is also a confidence that I am where I am meant to be and wouldn’t be here now but for all that has come before. Ultimately, it is a trust that God is love and that love conquers all things, even fear, even death. 

It is with that confidence, I believe, that St. Paul wrote the following at the end of the eighth chapter of the Letter to the Romans, “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?…No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”