Fr Jack SJ MD: Right Fear of the Lord: Homily for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31

Ps 128 1-5

1 Thes 5:1-6

Mt 25:14-30

Today’s readings can be summarized in one word: fear, specifically fear of the Lord. The word fear appears in the first reading, the psalm, and the gospel. Anxiety about the future appears in the second reading. Fear of one's master is prominent in the Gospel while the psalm associates the words fear and Lord twice. Thus there is a need to consider what fear of the Lord is and, perhaps more critically, what fear of the Lord is not.

Generating fear in another has been used and abused throughout the millennia.

It is still used by everything from frustrated parents trying to get an eight year-old to behave to national governments forcing the ideology du jour on a population. Fear of the Lord, however, has nothing to do with gut-churning, hand-trembling, sweat-inducing terror. Fear of the Lord is closer to love and awe than it is to the emotions and physical signs we generally associate with the word fear.

Protestant theologian Karl Barth makes an important distinction between anxiety-driven fear and what he calls ‘right fear of the Lord.’ He explains, “When the right fear of the Lord takes possession of our hearts we are both lost in amazement and struck by awe even terror. For we discover that God, since the beginning of time, has not hated or threatened us but has loved and chosen us . . . Right fear of the Lord springs from the discovery that God gave His Beloved Son for us.”

Right fear of the Lord is a complicated mix of emotions which threaten to overwhelm us when we finally realize that despite being sinners that despite being unworthy, God loved us and continues to love us. As per Barth, we know fear of the Lord when we realize that we are sinners who God loved so greatly

that He sent His only Son to redeem us. Right fear of the Lord is not driven by anxiety nor does it cause anxiety. Right fear of the Lord is driven by the kind of gratitude that appears again and again in the psalms. Right fear of the Lord is akin to the fear of disappointing those who love us BECAUSE they love us.

Throughout our lives we have feared disappointing parents, friends, spouses, children, mentors, and others. We fear letting others down because of our own sin, our own carelessness, or our own lack of love. When we do not know that kind of fear or concern we are moving toward becoming self-absorbed sociopaths.

Jesuit theologian Xavier Leon-Dufour writes, “Reverential fear, which shows itself in adoration, is different in that it is the normal reaction of the believer standing before the Divine. . . it draws one toward deeper faith.” The gospel parable is about that deeper faith.

It is important to recall that a parable is a mixture of narrative, allusion, metaphor, simile and, especially in this parable, hyperbole. The hyperbole is emphasized by the use of the 'talent' which frequently passes without any explanation from the pulpit.

For most of my youth I assumed a talent was exactly that: a talent. The ability to play the piano, make a hook shot, or whistle on key, perhaps the rarest talent of the three. Even when I realized that a talent had something to do with money I had no idea what it was worth. Ditto for the value of a denarius.

The denarius was a Roman coin that was the equivalent of a day's wages. It is mentioned only in the Gospels and once in Revelation. The talent, on the other hand, was a form of Jewish currency. References to talents appear in several places in the Old Testament. However, the talent is mentioned only in Matthew's Gospel; a gospel written for a Jewish-Christian community whose members alone would understand the reference. Converting the denarius and talent into modern currency slams home the point of this gospel and faith.

At a minimum wage of $7.55/hour, a denarius would be worth $60.40 for an eight-hour day. A talent was worth between 6,000 and 10,000 denarii. Using a midpoint of 8,000 denarii the servant who received one talent was given $483,000.00! The servant given five talents received $2,416,000.00. And the servant who receive two talents got almost a cool million. The hyperbole used to describe the seeds of faith we are given and how we nurture it, is obvious.

We do not and cannot possibly purchase faith. We do not have to earn it. It is given to us freely, in great measure, and overflowing. Others can and must at times guide us in our faith and teach us how to nurture it--the most important role of parents and teachers--but no one can do the work of nurturing that faith for us.

Those who, like the first two servants, nurture their faith so that it increases, those who live their lives in accord with that faith, will be rewarded and share in the Master's joy. Those who, like the servant given one talent, bury their faith, ignoring it, or pulling it out only in times of difficulty or stress, or perhaps for a few days at Christmas, will eventually lose even that.

All three servants knew fear of their Master. All three servants knew fear of the Lord. For the first two fear of the Lord was the awe and reverence, that Barth described as “right fear of the Lord.” Their faith, symbolized by the talents, grew as they awaited the master's return. Their reward was great when he did return.

The third servant knew only anxiety-driven fear of the Lord. He knew only timidity, a lack of confidence in the Lord, and unwillingness to trust the Lord. When the Master returned he lost even what he had and was thrown into darkness. We have the same choice as those servants.Thus the psalm that accompanies the readings.

"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."

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Water is one of the most pleasing things to photograph under almost any circumstances. Thus the attached shots are united only by involving water and they span the globe from Australia to Slovenia, not leaving out the U.S.