William Barry, SJ, one of my favorite spiritual writers, draws on the poetry of Franz Wright and the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous in this superb article about faith, fear, and sanity. He says:
Only God can save us from our fears and our addictions. Many of us need to hit a wall in order to have a chance of waking up to the reality that we are living insane lives as long as we believe that we can control things on our own. When we wake up to the real world, we find God patiently waiting for us, ready to help, ready to save us and make us whole.
As the late Scottish philosopher John Macmurray said long ago: “The maxim of illusory religion runs: ‘Fear not; trust in God and He will see that none of the things you fear will happen to you’; that of real religion, on the contrary, is ‘Fear not; the things that you are afraid of are quite likely to happen to you, but they are nothing to be afraid of.’” Those who live the way of life of the Twelve Steps follow the maxim of real religion and have a shot at living without fear.
In scripture whenever there is an encounter of a human with a heavenly messenger, the first words from the angel’s lips are “Fear not” or “Do not be afraid.” St. Teresa of Avila said “Let nothing upset you, nothing startle you.
Whoever has God lacks nothing:God alone is enough.”
Why is it so hard for us to realize this? Even if we have the misfortune to mourn — which we all do or will — we have been promised comfort.
It is a lesson we have to keep learning and relearning every day.