Faith and Fear

By Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Cap.

Some time ago I heard a homily in which the preacher seemed to indicate that, with true faith, there is no place for fear. The context was the scene of the disciples in the boat in a storm and Peter’s attempt to walk on water.

Though it is true that a really strong faith might displace fear in us, I doubt if anyone achieves that perfectly. Most of us are mixtures of virtue and weakness. It would be extreme to think that we should have absolutely no fear in our lives.

I am reminded of the statement about courage, that courage is not a lack of fear, but being able to move on in spite of fear. I would relate that to faith. In our faith and trust in God, we move on to do what needs to be done. Parents, police officers, fire fighters, medical personnel do these things all the time. There are true heroes among us.

I would presume there has been a lot of fear among us in the time of pandemic. There is fear and worry in view of the uncertainty of these times. Someone recently said it is like having Lent with no Easter in sight.

And so we trust that, in spite of the storms, in spite of our fear, in spite of our anxiety, there is Christ calling out to us, not to walk on water, but to keep living and reaching out in kindness and compassion.