In his book, The Soul’s Upward Yearning, Father Spitzer writes about people’s experience of God as a wholly-Other, “something mysterious, overwhelming, and daunting that elicits from us a sense of diminution, humility, submission, and creatureliness.” I believe that this is a beautiful way of understanding what we mean when we speak of the fear of God.
This may be used to describe, in part, what the townspeople in today’s gospel experienced after hearing about Jesus’ mighty deeds and meeting him in the flesh. Jesus was a daunting mystery, so overwhelming that they begged him to leave their district.
When we experience God’s presence in a mighty and daunting way, how do we avoid having this “fear of God” become a rejection of God? Two things, I think, will help. The first is to remember that our God is a God of love, who is always, always, always there to love us. The second is to embrace humility. At first, we may not enjoy or understand the way that God is acting in our lives, but if we remember that he loves us very much, then we will be more likely to accept this love with open hands.