Doorstep (Part 1: Fear)

Surah III, 133

“Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord and for a garden whose width is that (of the whole) of the heavens and of the earth prepared for the righteous. »

Fear
There is much to be said about the verb ‘to fear’ which recurs so often in the Bible and the Koran,

Before returning to what seemed so beautiful to me in this verse…

Fear is a dynamic, a profound movement.

It is different from fear, which is a momentary manifestation of a feeling of danger, implying a reaction aimed at the preservation of the organism experiencing fear.

Fear is more about the possibility of no longer being (an anxiety-provoking situation emphasizing the need for preservation, a return to the state preceding the intrusion of fear, etc.)

Fear, in the sense in which I read it, seems to me well represented in the words of John the Baptist when he says, in the Gospel, about Jesus, “He must rise and I must fall”

A new articulation brings about a great Reversal
even if “fear” is the word that is used, it does not seem to capture an essential component: the immense respect that arises in the face of the marvelousness, the greatness of God.

Fear is what occurs in Man when he realizes his great impotence, when he stops feeding his old illusory models with all power to rely on something greater than himself, something greater within him than himself.

Those who fear God are those who truly rely on God.
Those who saw their smallness and their greatness,
Those who understood the madness of their former functioning,
Those whose heart-floor has fallen away to reveal the depths.

Immeasurable, precisely, from the term ‘fear’, springs this relief, this perspective, this inconceivable space,

The Kingdom of God, where God is and awaits those who do not fear Him.

The verb ‘to fear’ is full of relief: it is a breathtaking adventure, literally.

‘Fear’ is the verb of abandonment of the one who has seen the derision of his gesticulations.
‘Fear’ is a verb of peace, harmony, great reunion.

Wonderful relief,
Saving abandonment
Harmony regained.

Fear : an initial movement, standing on the doorstep of divine territory,
He who fears is at the gate of God,

Fear is a photograph of the moment when man lifts a foot to place it closer to God.

Fear – awe !- is the widening of the eyes before moving forward.

When fear strikes the heart with all its marvelous religiosity, the believer can only advance towards God in a saving abandonment, living towards reunion.

Part 2

Franck – September 2023
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