Fear: Its Cause and Its Cure
The Christian faith does not deny the existence of fear in human life. It accepts it as a reality, but it also interprets it. Fear is the result of man's fall into sin—it opened the way for every kind of fear to enter his life and, consequently, for the tragedy of his earthly journey.
With the coming of Christ, however, man rediscovered his proper path and once again felt that love and friendship surrounded him everywhere. Christ shed abundant light upon his life, enabling him to see that God is precisely his Friend and Father, that his fellow human being is his brother, and that nature is his sister. In reality, after the coming of Christ, nothing can threaten human life. For through Him we have once again become children of God. Christ took us into Himself and became our garment: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). We are covered and kept safe within God Himself, the all-powerful and all-good. He is our dwelling place, both for our soul and for our body. And more than this: He Himself becomes the hidden indweller of our soul. He promised that we would dwell in Him and that He would dwell in us: “I will dwell in them and walk among them” (cf. 2 Cor. 6:16).
If we had our spiritual eyes open, we would see that we are continually being flooded with light, truth, life, and love. We would see, within ourselves, in every fellow human being, and throughout all of creation, the all-good presence of God, as well as that of our good guardian angel. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” the Apostle Paul declares, among other things (Rom. 8:31).
The words of the great ascetic teacher, Saint Isaac the Syrian, on this matter are deeply moving. In his Third Discourse he writes:
“Let the thought of fear not disturb you at all… but rather believe that you have God Himself as your guardian, that He is with you. Let your own discernment assure you of this: you, together with all creation, are servants of one and the same Master, who by a single sign of His will moves and shakes, calms and orders all things. And no servant can harm any of his fellow servants unless He who watches over and governs all things permits it… For neither demons, nor harmful beasts, nor evil people can carry out their evil will to destroy and ruin another when God, who governs all things, does not will it. And even when He does will it, He sets limits to it, determining the extent to which they may cause harm.”
The prerequisite, of course, for this grace-filled reality is faith in Christ. Without it, fear continues to seal and shape our lives. Christ Himself revealed this to us: the antidote to fear is faith. “Do not be afraid; only believe” (Mark 5:36), He says to each one of us even today. “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1, 27).
And what is meant here is true faith, which always exists together with love—“faith working through love,” as the Apostle says (Gal. 5:6). That is why “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).
