True Catholic Faith: Clarion Call of the Church’s Timeless Teaching

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 00:03

In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Today is the feast of the Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And although we know very little about him, like Saint Anne, we are able to gather from the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary what he was like. Because it is fitting that God would have chosen a very just man in order to be the father of the blessed virgin Mary.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 00:36

Just as it was fitting for God to choose a very just man in order to be her spouse. The beginning of all holiness and justice is the fear of the Lord. And for this reason, the psalm says, blessed is the man that feareth the Lord. And this psalm is applied to Saint Joachim in the intro of today's mass. And so I would like to speak to you today about the fear of the Lord.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 01:12

First, what the fear of the Lord is not. It is not to fear God in the same way in which a dog fears a master who beats him. It is not a servile, lowly fear of someone who is going to harm you. It is not a fear which causes a dark and terrible disturbance and sadness over past sins. That is usually from the devil.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 01:55

It is not even a fear of hell. Although the fear of hell is a holy thing and has converted many sinners and is the result of the grace of God. Nevertheless, the fear of God's punishments is not truly the gift of fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is a fear of displeasing God and of being separated from him. Fear of the Lord per perfects virtue of hope, which is that virtue by which we are inclined to despise the things of this world and to fix our goal on heaven.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 02:47

Because we want heaven so much, we fear losing it, And that is the fear of of the Lord. Fear of the Lord also perfects the virtue of temperance since it inspires us to detach ourselves from sense pleasures which could detach us from God. There are three principal acts of fear of the Lord. The first is a vivid sense of God's greatness. We tend to have a certain fear for anything that is big.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 03:32

If you were standing next to a great building or a great ocean liner, there is a certain fear of it. A locomotive, there is a certain fear of something that is big. But God is big. He is great. And therefore, there is a certain reverence for his greatness.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 03:57

And thus, we have extreme dread of the least sin that might offend his infinite majesty. If you are expecting a very important guest in your home, there is a fear, lest you do something that might offend him. There is a fear that something might go wrong. Our Lord Lord said to Saint Catherine of Siena, know you not that all the sufferings a soul undergoes or could undergo in this life are not sufficient punishment for even the slightest fault? The offense done to me, he continues, the infinite good demands This is why I want you to know that all the sufferings of this life are not a punishment but a correction.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 05:12

The second great act of fear is a lively sorrow for the least fault committed. And this because these faults can offend the infinite goodness of God. From this springs an ardent and earnest desire third great act is vigilant care in avoiding the occasions of sin. In the same way that you would pull back from a rattlesnake. So by fear of the Lord, you pull back from sin and the occasions of sin.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 06:13

On the other hand, he who does not fear God is comfortable with sin and is and is comfortable with the occasions of sin. The fear of the Lord is a reverential fear. It is a fear which child ought to have for his father. You all know the the expression familiarity breeds contempt. And when we are familiar with that which we ought to fear, we have contempt for it.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 06:55

And so a father loses the respect which he ought to have if he does not maintain good discipline. And so this fear of the Lord prevents us from getting too familiar with God. That is why fear of the Lord would object to, for example, jokes about Almighty God. They are in themselves blasphemous to joke about the things of God. That's contrary to the fear of the Lord.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 07:29

You don't joke about things that you deeply respect and which are sacred. And it would be best to tell someone who is about to tell you a joke about sacred things, I'd rather not hear it. I don't joke about sacred things. For this reason, fear of the Lord dreads sin more than the punishment for sin. And it is called in sacred scripture, the beginning of wisdom.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 08:07

The Psalm says the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And it is beginning of wisdom, which is the knowledge of God and the things of God, which is to think in the way that God thinks. Because it makes us break off from sin and it makes us obey the divine law in everything. And this horror of sin, this fear of the Lord, Lord is very much attached to the virtue of humility as well. Because we fear what is in us to offend God in the same way that a waiter waiting on a table where there is a great dignitary, if he knows that he is clumsy, he fears because he fears what he is capable of doing.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 09:19

So also, if we know our weaknesses through humility, fear. We fear of how easily we could offend God. The opposite of fear of the Lord is human respect. Human respect arises from fear of offending another human being. Now while we should always seek peace with those around us whenever we can and always be on good terms and bend over backwards not to offend people, there offend God.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 10:04

Saint Thomas More said that about the king. I am the king's good servant, but God's first. And so he had to offend the king in his desire for him to go along with his evil divorce. In order to please God, and it happens many times a day that we must offend others when they would have us deny the faith even implicitly by doing something that would be a denial of the faith. Some compromise with morals.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 10:44

We must offend in order not to offend God. All of England was lost by human respect, by a failure of the bishops of England to have fear of the Lord. All of it was lost to heresy. And look at the effect throughout the whole world as the British Empire spread itself everywhere. With it went all of the error of Protestantism.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 11:15

And if England had been Catholic, the world would be a better place today. Over one act of human respect. And this human respect is a very common sin. God is many times a day offended even by good people so that a creature will not be offended. Terrible sins, shameful sins are committed in the name of human respect and failure to fear God.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 11:53

And a man who is perfect will have no fear of offending others if he needs to offend them in order to obey God. This is the just man. This is the man that Saint Joachim was and any other just man worthy of the title. It goes with being just, God above all things. The will of God.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 12:19

The commandments of God. The interests of God above all things. Let all other things pass away, but let the will of God be done. That is the just man. And even if he must accept great hardship for himself and great sorrow, even death, the will of God be done.

Bp. Donald Sanborn: 12:41

And let all other things pass away. Saint Joachim was a just man who feared the Lord, and he rightly and deservedly today basks in the glory of his daughter who was assumed gloriously into heaven. And let us pray to him that he obtained for us the fear of the Lord, a holy horror for sin, a respect for the majesty of God, the flight from the occasions of sin, so that our own households might imitate the house of Joachim, of Anne, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which we might call the other holy family. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.