Question II: What the object of fear is

FEAR has for its object evil, professedly to be fled.

The Holy Doctor observes here, in dub. 1 and 2, that there are four Fears. The first is worldly, and it is that by which someone, fearing some inconvenience of this life, in order to escape it, offends God.

From this fear Christ taught us to beware, Matthew 10: Do not fear those who kill the body. The second Fear is servile, by which one is frightened away from sins on account of punishments. This however is twofold: one is merely servile, mechanical, which is so frightened by punishments that, if these did not loom, it would still commit sins freely; and this is still inordinate, and is therefore censured by all, especially by Cardinal Bonaventure; the other is indeed servile but does not exclude flight from fault, such as that of a man who is crushed by his committed sins out of fear of gehenna, and such is good and a gift of the Holy Spirit, as the Council of Trent teaches, session 14, chapter 4, and session 6, canon 8, as I shall say in question 3. Christ enjoins this fear at once in the place cited of Matthew: Fear him, who after he has killed the body has power to send into Gehenna, and 1 John 4: Fear is not in Charity: but perfect Charity casts out fear. In this text the third Fear is also hinted at, which is called Initial, by which one so fears God's offense that he fears punishment at the same time; and this is touched in the place cited where it is said: Fear is not in Charity: but perfect Charity casts out fear. He means that this is not with charity — truly perfect — which is clear from that clause, but perfect Charity, etc.

The FOURTH Fear is filial, which detests evil insofar as it is against God and redounds to his offense. Of this it is said, Romans 8: You have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear — that is, you have not received servile fear, like the ancients, who heard the observance of the law through terrors and threats — but you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry Abba (Father). Of this fear it is also said, Psalm 18: The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring unto ages of ages. Where Augustine and others read chaste; for the just are compared to God as a most chaste bride to her bridegroom, acting indeed out of fear lest they wound the bridegroom, but with love. So 1 Corinthians 10 [actually 2 Cor. 11]: I have espoused you, etc.

One must then note with Cardinal Bonaventure, opusculum 15, On the Seven Gifts: On the Gift of Fear, chapter 1, that the variety of Fears is born from the variety of loves; for Fear is love fleeing whatever opposes it, from Cardinal Augustine, book 14, de civitate Dei, chapter 7. And in the Gloss on John 10, which is St. Augustine's, we have: Fear is a flight, lest man lose what he loves. Therefore Fear arises from love, and thus from ordered love arises ordered fear, and from inordinate love, inordinate fear; and such as is the love of the good, such is the fear of the opposite evil.

Hence Adam, who at first loved God filially, feared to offend him; but after he offended out of inordinate love, he feared servilely and said: Lord, I heard your voice, and I feared, Genesis 3.

HUGH, book 2 de sacramentis, part 13, chapter 5, distinguishes five Fears. The first is Human, or natural, which is a passion, arising from natural love, by which each one fears harm to his nature; but by passions we neither merit nor demerit, because they are not subject to free will, except when one conducts himself rationally with regard to them. With this fear Christ feared to die, but only as much as he willed, for our example and instruction.

The SECOND is Worldly, which is truly born of inordinate love of the present life or of things pertaining to it, and is always evil; because, as John says, 1 John 2: Whoever loves the world is constituted an enemy of God. This, however, according to the variety of the goods of the world, of the flesh, etc., of its loved objects, is subdivided materially, as Cardinal Bonaventure notes, dub. 1 literal.

The THIRD is Servile, which from God is (as the Holy Doctor says) not as "merely servile" sounds, but as implicitly excluding offense; of this Psalm 118: Pierce my flesh with your fear, and Cardinal Augustine, enarratio 25: The servile fear, the pedagogue of the law, came first, which leads to Christ; it arises from love of eternal things, lest one lose them by eternal damnation; it is twofold, as I shall say in question 3, near the end of the arguments.

The FOURTH is the filial fear of beginners, of which it is said: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and it is from charity begun. Therefore of this it is said that it is not with charity, that is, perfect, because: perfect charity casts out fear, 1 John 4; and Cardinal Bernard, sermon 22 on the Song of Songs, says: Not undeservedly this Fear is called the beginning of wisdom, which often first sets itself against folly. For this fear is a kind of entrance to wisdom.

The FIFTH is the Fear filial, which arises from charity perfected, as I said.

OBSERVE third, with Cardinal Bonaventure, here dist. 34, dub. 3, that this last fear is divided with respect to specific objects, so that one is the chaste Fear, which is the bride's; another the friendly, that is, of the Friend; another the son's: for the son fears to offend the Father, the Friend his friend, the bride her bridegroom. But with respect to God there is one, both because of the motive, in which generically those mentioned also agree, and because there is one grace with respect to God, constituting the soul daughter, spouse, and friend of God.

He also notes, in dub. 4, that Initial and servile Fear agree in some way, for each is the beginning of wisdom, but servile begins from outside, the other through some charity. Fear is truly called the beginning of wisdom because it begins to ascend gradually to the gifts, up to the highest, which is wisdom.

From what has been said, then, elicit with Cardinal Bonaventure, dub. 1, that Fear regards evil by fleeing it; and because from the varying of objects arises the variety of Fears, by a broad division the definitions of each fear can also be given. Fear, therefore, is thus defined by Cardinal Augustine, Tractate 46 on John: Fear is the flight of the soul, lest it lose what it loves. For it flees the evil, which is the loss of the beloved good. It is also defined by Damascene, book 2 de fide, chapter 18: Fear is the expectation of a future evil; and expectation is taken broadly for the estimation, shuddering at the looming danger; for thus unlucky tidings are awaited, as the Holy Doctor notes, dub. 1. Therefore Fear in general is the flight from an arduous evil to be avoided, and from a good to be reverenced, as St. Bonaventure teaches, part 3 of the Centiloquium, section 45.

HENCE, given this division of Fears, each can be defined from its various motives. Thus natural Fear is the flight from an evil noxious to nature. Worldly Fear is defined: it is the inordinate flight from the evils of this life. Servile Fear: it is the flight from penal evils, without excluding the flight from offense against God, and so with the rest.

Fear, therefore, of whatever kind, is a recoil from the arduous — which is evil in the fears adduced, and also good in the perfect filial fear; for it recoils, not indeed from the good, but from the arduousness, which is the excellence of the good, yet it recoils with reverence; and for this reason they admit filial Fear even in the fatherland, as is said, Psalm 18: Enduring unto ages of ages — truly in this life it recoils from evil as it is offense, as I shall say in question 7.

From this variety of objects the Holy Doctor deduces that there is not one univocal specific object of all, but an analogical one; for the good which is the object of perfect filial fear — which fears to lose the highest good on the way, and in the fatherland is borne reverently toward that sublime good — are analogical objects.

IT IS PROVED, therefore, by the Holy Doctor that the Object of Fear is arduous with respect to flight; for just as hope is borne toward the arduous in pursuit, so, in the opposite way, Fear ought to recoil from that arduous thing by flight, since it is disposed in the opposite manner. And just as Hope tends toward the arduous good, which is the object of pursuit, so fear [tends] toward the evil, which is the object of flight; but under the aspect of evil is included also the arduousness of the good, which will be explained in its place.