Fear is the emotion we need to experience when we are confronted with a future evil that can be avoided only with some difficulty. Fear and the consuming nature of anxiety, have the ability to steal everything from us in a way that no other mental tribulation is quite capable. Through a process called potentiation, your fear response is amplified if you are already in a state of fear. When you are primed for fear, you can imagine things as much worse than they really are. Fear can be as much an ally, as it can be an enemy.
For people who are trying to live a life pleasing to God, the good spirit strengthens, encourages, consoles removes obstacles, and gives peace. The evil spirit tries to derail them by stirring up anxiety, false sadness, needless confusion, frustration, fear, and other obstacles.
For many, fear causes retreat. It is what prevents many people from reaching their goals and living a happy life. It can literally freeze them. Without God, we turn inward to ourselves.
One of the great gifts of being a believing Catholic is a sense of trust in God’s providence. It is truly a case of lex orandi, lex credendi – what we pray is what we believe. Near the end of the Lord’s Prayer at every Mass, we pause as the priest prays the Embolism prayer.
Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant us peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin
and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus spent a lot of time telling us not to be so worried or anxious. Worrying is natural, and some amount is good, it helps us think about responses to potential dangers, but excessive worry may show a lack of trust and faith in God. Many things are simply out of our control.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:25-27
As did St. Peter: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
And St. Paul: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:7:
The works of God are all of them good;he supplies for every need in its own time. There is no cause then to say: “This is not as good as that”; for each shows its worth at the proper time. So now with full heart and voice proclaim .” Sirach 39: 33-35
