Hope in the Time of Corona

Yesterday’s 2^nd reading had St. Paul telling his young coworker Timothy: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7; King James Version).

Let’s parse this a little.

The “spirit of fear” is the irrational sort that dulls the mind, deadens the spirit, and impedes life. It does not come from God. Rather, it comes from those anxious voices we choose to listen to and subscribe to until it becomes embedded in our very consciousness directing our thoughts, opinions, actions, and even our prayers.

The “power” is that of God’s own self: the omnipotent power “…who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name” (Amos 5:8).  It is the power of God who has made us “little less than a god; with glory and honour you crowned [us], gave [us] power over the works of your hand, put all things under [our] feet” (Ps. 8: 5-9).

The “sound mind” is the intelligence that enables us to think critically, analytically, investigating the evidence without undue influences. It is thinking that engages the whole person – intellect, affect, and spirit – rather than operating on a single level. (See Bernard Lonergan, S.J.: https://www.hprweb.com/2018/06/understanding-the-four-aspects-of-dogma-according-to-bernard-lonergan-in-the-way-to-nicea/).

And love? It is the love of God made visible in the God-man Jesus Christ. It is the love that “rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things … And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (I Cor. 13: 6, 7 & 13).

In his 9^th Homily on 1 John, St. Augustine wrote: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment.”

Henry Emmerson Fosdick, the American pastor whom Martin Luther King, Jr., deemed one of the “greatest preachers of this century,” wisely asserted: “Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable – and, most of all, fear puts hopelessness at the heart of life, while faith rejoices in its God.” (See: https://deeperchristianquotes.com/the-difference-between-fear-and-faith-harry-emerson-fosdick/).

Faith rejoices in its God!

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