1st Sunday of Advent 29.11.20 Fear of the Lord
Fear of the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. It does not mean fear as in ‘being afraid’ of something, like spiders, or heights, or crowds etc.
It means a basic reverence and awe before Almighty God, whereby we understand that God is far above any other being, or object, or activity. He is greater than the sum total of everything else.
This could simply intimidate us (the wrong sort of fear), but it is meant to lead us into loving God, as we discover His goodness.
We are attracted to the good, and here is All Goodness in the one place.
It is good for us to be in such a state and therefore we can call it a gift. It is something that makes us better off than we were before.
If we love Him we will be glad to see Him. It is in this understanding that we can speak of welcoming Christ to return, as we do in the Advent season.
We call: Come, Lord Jesus! Come and resume complete control of all the world, only this time in such a way that all will see it. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
We can be comfortable in the presence of God. His superiority does not exclude us. He invites us to come closer to Him (Come to Me, all you who labour and thirst…. Let the little children come to Me… Come, follow Me…Everything is ready, come to the banquet…)
Becoming more familiar with Him we lose the servile fear and grow in the filial fear, that of complete, but comfortable submission to His will.
The more we love Him, the more readily we obey. This is how it is in Heaven, where everyone still has free will, but no one would ever use that will against God.
One might object that it is easy for them in Heaven, but for us still toiling away on earth, we have to deal with many distractions
There is so much sin and rebellion in the world. It could make us hard and cynical, rejecting any idea of God’s offering or requiring love in relation to us.
And there are so many dark ways which we might take, and then find ourselves trapped, no longer expecting mercy, or any share of God.
There is a way through all this – the way of repentance, conversion of heart.
God, for His part, holds out His offer of Mercy to everyone.
Anyone can be forgiven, even for a lifetime of sin, provided there is some movement towards God.
He came to the world to offer another chance to the human race; He will come again to complete what He has begun.
Our prayer in Advent is that hard hearts will be prised open, allowing the grace and mercy of God to enter.
People ask: Why can't we all just live in peace? Along the same line: why cannot the creature obey the creator? Why do we try to be something we are not, when every happiness is to be found in simply being what we are – children of God.
Advent is a dawning of this understanding. Not for the first time, but each time is like the first time in the freshness of the present moment.
To see God as He wants us see Him, not afraid of Him as being so far beyond us; not over-familiar as in irreverent – but the right balance, knowing and loving Him, as He really is, and we really are.
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