“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7).
When the gift of the fear of God begins to work in us, beloved Father, then Your love has already entered our hearts. For this fear means nothing other than not wanting to offend You in any way, not wanting to reject Your infinite love in any way, and always being careful not to wound Your sensitive Heart. Therefore, the gift of the fear of God awakens us from all laziness and teaches us not to let ourselves be carried away, but to be attentive to everything: to every word that comes out of our mouth, to every deed that we do, and even to every thought that we entertain. Everything must be subjected to the obedience of love! To do this, it will be necessary to walk a path, but it is a fruitful path of love.
Beloved Father, You deserve it. It is the least we can do for You who always treat us so tenderly. Even when we need to be corrected, You do it with fatherly love and kindness. That’s how You are!
When have we ever heard an ugly word or felt a derogatory gesture from You? When have you ever made fun of us? Never!
And yet we so easily violate charity. Thanks to your example and this wonderful gift of the fear of the Lord, we can learn to treat our neighbour as You treat us.
Day after day we must put this into practice with great vigilance. It should not be so difficult when we have such a loving Father. Then our love will grow. And as our love grows, we will be able to show it to our neighbour because we will no longer be dependent on our human capacity to love, which is so limited, but Your divine love will be working in us.
What a blessing this will be for our neighbour and what a joy for You!