Fear of the Lord is an awe or a profound respect for God, it is a good fear that helps us live a good life and brings us closer to God and ultimately, closer to Heaven. Pope Francis said it “…is the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom we are reminded of how small we are before God”.

Fear of the Lord is not being scared of the Lord, but having a healthy respect for Him. It is a realization of His power, and magnitude. It is realizing His justice, His love, and His Mercy. It is realizing our nothingness compared to God. We should not be scared of our God, because He is so loving and merciful, however, we should respect Him and realize His Greatness. 

We should be in awe of God – a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. One aspect of being in awe is having a reverential fear – a fear of cutting ourselves off from the Lord. The only way we can do that is through mortal sin. This is a healthy fear, it’s a fear that drives us to do what is right and good. It drives us to have respect for God, for ourselves and for others. Being in awe of God is good and healthy, and helps us stay close to the Lord. 

Fear of the Lord is realizing the Lord’s power and magnitude. There are many examples throughout the bible of God’s power and magnitude. One that stands out to me is God’s power to raise the dead, Jesus did raise Lazarus while he was on Earth. Another instance that stands out to me is Jesus was raised from the dead – not only that, He is present in Body and Blood at every mass after the consecration of the Eucharist. There are multiple occasions where there have been Eucharistic miracles, in which a Host falls or is found and is dissolved in water, when it is dissolved, it turns into particles of blood. God is so powerful! 

I can’t go on without calling out God’s power through Saint Philomena, a powerful prayer is: St. Philomena powerful with God, pray for us. Her parents promised her to the Emperor in return for protection over their island. St. Philomena refused his hand in marriage, as she had already promised her virginity to the Lord, the emperor tried to kill her many times and angels protected her. God is so powerful. Recognizing and respecting His power allows us to know Him more which in turn brings us closer to Him.

Fear of the Lord is not only realizing His justice, but also realizing His love and mercy. We can realize His justice in a similar way in which we are in awe of Him, when we have a reverential respect and we fear separating ourselves from Him. We can also realize that reparations will need to be made for all sin on Earth. I don’t believe we can realize His justice without realizing His love and mercy. As I have been reading St. Faustina’s Diary, I have come to know how merciful the Lord is and how powerful the Divine Mercy Chaplet is. I also have realized how powerful His love is. He blessed St. Faustina with such an intimate relationship. He allowed her to know Him on a very intimate level and He used her to allow us to come to know Him more. 

Through reading her diary, I have come to know just how abundant His mercy is. He is so loving and merciful. His mercy is unfathomable to us. It overpowers his Justness so long as we are with Him – we have not separated ourselves from Him through mortal sin. Coming to know God’s justice, love and mercy gives us a greater respect for God and brings us closer to Him. 

Job is a perfect example of someone who had the utmost respect for God, even after God allowed the Devil to take nearly everything away from Job, he still praised God. He recognized his littleness in comparison to the Lord. He had reverence and respect for God. He claimed that should he ever converse with the Lord, he would never be right, God will always be right because of His power and magnitude. 

Our God is so wonderful! He is almighty and omnipotent. He is just, merciful and loving. We should strive to know Him better to have a healthy fear of Him, a reverent respect for Him, knowing that He is so much greater than we are. His magnitude and power is unfathomable to us. Until we die we will never fully know the Lord’s power and magnitude. We should strive to have a healthy fear and to always stay close to the Lord.