Fear Itself

Ordering our fears rightly

Mark 6:47-51

When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore.  Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them.  About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea.  He meant to pass by them.  But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost  and cried out.  They had all seen him and were terrified.  But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”  He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.  They were completely astounded.

                Is fear always a bad thing?  Some people think so, like those who boldly wear those baseball caps that read, “No Fear!”  Or Spencer Johnson who asked in his famous book Who Moved My Cheese? this rhetorical question, “What would you do if you had no fear?”  And yet, some fear is good to experience.  A friend of mine was having trouble getting his kids to brush their teeth before bed.  One day, he drove them into a rough neighborhood and introduced them to some people whose teeth had rotted because of drug use.  He told them that’s what happens when you don’t brush.  One of his kids grew up to be a dentist.  So, not all fear is bad.

                The problem with fear, however, is that we fear the wrong things.  We’re afraid of spiders and snakes and long sermons at daily Mass (!) but we don’t fear spiritual evils, like mortal sins, like gluttony and gossip and greed.  My favorite philosopher is Josef Pieper, who talks about an “ordo timoris,” a hierarchy of fears.  He writes, “The Christian asks what is really and ultimately terrible; and he is concerned not to fear things which are not really and ultimately terrible” (The Christian Idea of Man, 26).  So, some fear is good (like avoiding cavities), but spiritual fears are even better (like avoiding sleeping in Mass); fear sins more than snakes.

                In the gospel today, Jesus walks on water in the middle of the night in a storm and reprimands his timorous apostles saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid!”  So, was Jesus advocating having absolutely no fear?  Was he sporting a baseball cap that read, “No Fear”?  No, not at all.  He meant don’t fear physical dangers more than spiritual ones.  You see, the apostles’ “ordo timoris” was upside-down; they feared storms more than sins.  Remember when Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, fear the One who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna” (Mt. 10:28)?  Fear sins more than storms.

                In his first Inaugural Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  But he also wisely went on to clarify what kind of fear he meant, by adding, “They concern, thank God, only material things.”  In other words Roosevelt had his “ordo timoris” right-side-up; the country needed to fear spiritual difficulties more than material ones.  That speech was one crucial condition for the country to come out of the Great Depression, because Roosevelt reminded us what to fear.  If properly ordered fear lifted our country out of the Great Depression, what could properly ordered fear do for you?  Let me ask you again, is fear always a bad thing?

Praised be Jesus Christ!