God is With Us, So Do Not Be Afraid

Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834-1890), "Christ With Thorns"
Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834-1890), "Christ With Thorns" (photo: Register Files)

Whew! Have you encountered the shopping mall, main street and the Christmas rush?

There is a kind of panicked grasping after material happiness. Not only do we want to pack the tree with goodies, we want to pack our stomachs with feasting and pack our homes with family happiness.

It’s all wonderful and far be it from me from to be a Scrooge, but beneath it all there sometimes lurks a deep unhappiness that we are trying desperately to fill.

What is it that makes us so restless and so unhappy?

Some say it is desire. The root of all unhappiness is desire. We desire what we do not have, and we desire more what we cannot have. But what is at the root of that desire? 

I think it is something else.

It is fear: the nameless fear in the middle of the night. It is the fear that haunts our waking hours as a gnawing restlessness that focuses itself in desire.

We desire as we hunger and we don’t know what we desire or for what we hunger and that desire and restlessness is rooted in fear.

You may well scratch your head and ask, “But what am I afraid of?” That’s just the thing. We don’t know what we’re afraid of. The fear is formless. The fear is simply there as a ground level anxiety in our human condition.

At times, of course, it comes out as a specified and focused fear. Some small thing sparks it or some great concern fans the flames and the fear erupts in full terror. More often the fear surfaces as resentment towards others, suspicion of others and condemnation of others.

Why do we bad mouth and blame the other? Because we fear. We fear they will have something better than us. They will have something we cannot have. They will be better than us and shame us and their superiority will put us down and we fear.

Why do we strive so hard to succeed and be better than others? Because we fear.

Why do we work so hard to earn so little and then spend it on stuff we don’t need? Because we fear. We fear being alone and not being secure. We fear not being loved for who we are so we try to be loved for what we have.

Why do we put on artificial masks and do things and say things to people who we don’t like in order to win approval from them even though their approval means nothing? Because we fear.

Why do we attack other racial groups, other socio-economic groups, immigrants, Democrats, Republicans, the rich, the poor, the Muslims, the Jews, the Catholics, the Protestants, the bishops, the clergy, the people, the neighbors, the children, the adults, the parents, the students, the teachers. Why do we attack and blame most anyone but ourselves? Because we fear.

Fear is the root of original sin for the original sin is that of pride: “I am the best. I am like God.” That’s pride, and that ugliness springs forth from fear.

Fear is also at the foundation which is fear of God. That is why the proverb is so profound: “The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Not fear for its own sake, but the realization that the fear is there, and once we realize that the fear of the Lord is there like a silent beast in the darkened cellar of our lives we can begin to face the fear.

Then one day, if grace is given and the journey leads that way, then one day if the door is opened and we see our way there we come to realize at th­at very same depth that the message of the angel is always, “Do not fear. Do not be afraid.”

This is an Advent message from the angel to you. “Do not be afraid.”

Do not be afraid because God is with you. He is on his way.

Perfect Love is about to enter the world and as we know, “Perfect Love casts out all fear.”