5th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C 2025

I have never visited the Grand Canyon, but from what others have told me, one experience is nearly universal.  You think you know what to expect.  You’ve seen pictures and perhaps read about it.  But standing at the edge, looking into that vast chasm, you suddenly feel small.  So small that you instinctively take a step back, overwhelmed by its sheer scale.

Something similar happens to Isaiah and Peter in today’s readings.  They encounter not a canyon, but the living God, and their first reaction is fear.  Isaiah even says in rather dramatic fashion “Woe is me, I am doomed!”  They recognize their own unworthiness before the power and holiness of God.  And yet, rather than turning them away, God calls them to a mission.  These episodes tell us something about the role of fear in our relationship with God.

Peter and Isaiah witness a theophany, God’s self-revelation, and both tremble, fearful of the power of God.  They fear the vast gulf between their unworthiness and God's holiness.  However, the Lord still calls them.  They were not chosen for their holiness.  Neither were qualified.  But their humility and fear prepared them for the task about to be bestowed on them.

The Lord tells Peter, “Do not be afraid.”  Yet it is precisely this fear that prepares him to become a fisher of men.  Regarding this passage concerning the great catch of fish, St. Cyril of Alexandria says “For this reason also Peter, carried back to the memory of his former sins, trembles and is afraid, and as being impure ventures not to receive Him Who is pure: and his fear was laudable: for he had been taught by the law to distinguish between the holy and the profane” (Commentary on Luke, Sermon 12).  Isaiah had to first recognize his own unworthiness in order to be purified.  Only then could he serve as the mouthpiece of God.

Sometimes I wonder if we do not reflect deeply enough on our own unworthiness, the discrepancy between our lowly state and the infinite holiness of God.  Without humility, without that recognition of the gap between our littleness and the greatness of God, we can grow careless and cavalier in the way we approach our Lord.  We have good reason to fear God.  We should never take for granted His power and authority which He has chosen to veil so as not to terrorize us.  Fear does have a place in the Christian life.

St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians exhorts us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (cf. Philippians 2:12).  Proverbs tells us that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 2:10).  Jesus Himself says not to be afraid of those who can do harm to our bodies but rather to “fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.  Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:5).

And yet our Lord also tells His disciples time and again “do not be afraid” (cf. Matthew 14:27; Matthew 17:7; Matthew 28:10; Luke 12:32; etc.).  In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells Peter, “Do not be afraid,” even as Peter crumples before Him.  Furthermore, St. John says that “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).  We seem to have a paradox.

The solution, I suggest, is this: we ought to fear God but not be afraid of Him.  We should cultivate in our hearts the fear of the Lord but not be frightened of Him.  If we are frightened or afraid of something we try to run away from it.  We try to push it out of our minds.  Many are unknowingly afraid of God, leading lives stained by grave sin.  Their consciences are tormented, pursued by the Hound of Heaven.  What do they do?  They try to forget about their miserable state.  Perhaps they even try to convince themselves that their sins are not that great or that God isn’t even there to bother with them.  They distance themselves from what frightens them.  This repulsing fright and latent terror is precisely what our Lord prohibits.

But good and holy fear, the kind that Peter and Isaiah had, is different.  Rather than running away from God, the recognition of their own unworthiness properly disposes them to receive the mission God has for them.  Because of their humility, they are able to move closer to God.  Their boldness to press into God is not cavalier or careless.  They are mindful of their own unworthiness.  This holy fear that they have could be called reverence.  It is a respect for the power and authority of God.

The fear of the Lord is not meant to paralyze us or drive us away from Him.  Rather, it reinforces within us the virtue of humility and vice versa.  Fear of the Lord and humility foster the proper disposition towards God by cultivating reverence, dependence, and a sincere recognition of His supreme authority and mercy.  Without these virtues, we cannot have a proper relationship with God.  Isaiah and Peter were not called because they were strong, qualified, or confident, but because they were humble enough to recognize their unworthiness.  That same humility is what prepares us to receive God’s grace and respond to His particular call for each of us.

True reverence begins with recognizing who God is—and who we are before Him.  Isaiah and Peter trembled in His presence, not because God sought to terrify them, but because they grasped the vast difference between His holiness and their unworthiness.  God is able to call them because they are properly disposed.

And He calls us, too.  The question is, are we properly disposed?  Do we, like Peter, acknowledge our sinfulness and let God transform us?  Are we afraid of God or do we have the holy fear of the Lord?  God wants to have a relationship with us.  It requires boldness which must be preceded by reverence, fear of the Lord.  We must acknowledge our unworthiness and lowliness before God.  But we must not let fear drive us away.  Instead, we must let it humble us so that we can receive His mercy and respond to His invitation.  It may lead us to say with Peter “depart from me, for I am a sinner.”  But we need not worry.  Because of His love and mercy, He will not take us at our word.