128:1b-2, 3, 4, 5
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him. Blessed are you who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him. You wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; Your children like olive plants around your table.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him. Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him. The LORD bless you from Zion: may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
Is Fear a Blessing?
The response for today’s psalm is about the blessings which come from fearing the Lord. Throughout my priestly years I have come across many people who, by an unfortunate lack of knowledge of the Scriptures, did not want to hear anything about the fear of the Lord. How can we fear God, who is a Father full of mercy? Needless to say, many people do not want to deal with other fears, such as fear of eternal punishment. St. Jerome reminds us that the ignorance of Scriptures is ignorance of Christ and reading the Bible by selecting the passages one wants to believe and discarding those which seem more problematic, is a spiritually dangerous approach. Psalm 128 reminds us that the Lord blesses those who fear him.
Types of Fear
Understanding the meaning of the fear of the Lord is not easy. Aquinas, for example, speaks of filial, initial, servile and worldly fear (Summa Theologiae 2 2 19 2). We can find one interpretive approach to the biblical passages regarding fear in Benedict XVI’s Angelus in June 2008. To the faithful gathered at St. Peter’s Square the now Pope emeritus recalled that there is an existential form of fear ‘which sometimes borders on anguish: it is born from a sense of emptiness, linked to a certain culture permeated with widespread theoretical and practical nihilism’.1 This is not, however, the fear of the Lord.
The Fear of the Lord As the Beginning of Wisdom
Mere human fears are not, however, fear of the Lord; the latter is instead counted among the gifts of the Holy Spirit and ‘enables a person “to avoid sin and attachment to created things out of reverence and love of God” […] A genuine relationship with God is based on love, not fear. Therefore, this “fear of the Lord” is a filial or reverential fear that moves a person to do God’s will and avoid sin because of love for God, who is all good and deserving of all of our love’.2
The fear of God ‘which the Scriptures define as “the beginning of knowledge [wisdom]” (Prov 1: 7) coincides with faith in him, with sacred respect for his authority over life and the world […] Those who love him are not afraid: “There is no fear in love”, the Apostle John wrote, “but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love” (1 Jn 4: 18)’.3
Practical Applications
To fear the Lord helps:
1. To keep his commandments.
2. To make oneself ‘eligible’ for God’s blessings (as described by Psalm 128), such blessings reach even future generations.
3. To set the right path in our relationship with the God of justice and mercy.
In any case, the fear of the Lord assures us of a healthy spiritual relationship with our Savior.
God bless you all.
1 https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/angelus/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ang_20080622.html, accessed on August 16, 2021.
2 For a clear and complete explanation of this gift, see https://catholicstraightanswers.com/fear-lord/, accessed on August 16, 2021.
3 Benedict XVI, Idem.
