Tackle your Fears Head-On
Fear is a childish feeling of the adult but empty soul. Fear is really a lack of faith that becomes obvious when we think of what unforeseen things might happen. It is lack of trust in God.
The proud soul is a slave to fear precisely because it trusts in itself and so shudders at any noise or any shadow. Those who are contrite for their sins have no fear.
So if there are places where you are normally afraid to go, do not hesitate to frequent them even at dead of night, armed with prayer. Your fear is a childish and ridiculous thing, but if you give way to it only a little, it will take root in your heart and stay with you. So arm yourself with prayer and when you reach the spot lambast the enemy in the name of Jesus. There is no stronger weapon in earth or heaven than that.
And when you are cured of your fear, sing the praises of the One who has freed you. If you thank him, he will always protect you.
Sometimes only the body is afraid and the fear has not spread to the soul, then you are nearly cured.
The one who serves God, fears his Lord and no other. The one who does not fear his Lord is scared even of his own shadow.
John Climacus
Stairway to Paradise, 21 (PG88, 945)
Reach out to the Good in the Freedom of Love
Evil as a thing in itself does not exist. It has no being, if we think of it as completely separated from the highest Good. Nothing exists that does not participate in the Good. Evil is only a lack of Goodness, and nothing exists that is completely lacking in Goodness.
Divine Providence affects every being; there is no being that is outside its influence. When some evil happens, Providence kindly makes use of it for the benefit of the sinner or of other people, individually or as a community.
We cannot agree with the one who says that Providence ought to compel us to be good even against our will. What sort of Providence would it be that destroyed our human nature? Its function is rather to protect the nature of every being. Therefore, when dealing with beings that have been given free will, it acts taking account of this free will of theirs.
Evil is weakness, impotence, lack of knowledge, ignorance of what it is impossible not to know, insufficient faith, not enough desire for or doing of what is good.
The objection could be raised that weakness deserves forgiveness rather than punishment. If humanity had not been given any strength, that objection would be justified. But according to Scripture the highest Good gives each person the strength that is needed. Consequently, we have no excuse for neglecting the good qualities we have received from him who is Goodness itself.
This Good is the beginning and the end of all things. It is involved in all existence. It creates from nothingness. It is the cause of all good without being the cause of evil. It is Providence and perfect Goodness. It transcends being and not-being. And it has the ability to turn evil into good.
We ought to reach out to it with all our might, with all the desire of love.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
On the Divine Names 4, 33ff. (PG3, 812)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
