Fear is a powerful motivation. Somewhere along in life we learn that there is a reason to be afraid. I remember that before my mother died (when I was 13) I was afraid she was going to die. And she did die. We all learn sometime to be afraid, but fear diminishes our freedom to live, really live. Over my nearly 34 years of being a priest I have seen fear do terrible things to families: I've seen a battered wife, afraid for her life, kill her husband. I have seen a young wife desert her husband because she was afraid she could not take care of him and could not live with him so changed as he was by his injury. I have seen multiple instances of an aging husband deserting his also aging wife for a younger version because, really, he was afraid of his own advancing mortality. And I have seen teens kill themselves because of things they were afraid of.
Fear is what motivated Peter to deny Jesus, and Paul to persecute Him, and the chiefs priests and elders to condemn Him, and Pilate to crucify Him. Fear was at work in the Pharisees of Jesus' time (and in our time as well) with their fear: if we don't do everything just right, then it will all fall apart.
Where is the trust in Jesus? Fear actually may be mankind's bedrock sin: from Adam and Eve's fear of being found out, to our own fears, which are legion, today. What we should fear is "that Day" when we meet our Lord face to face and experience the shame of realizing how little reason there is to give in to fear because of how much He loves us. Knowing this confidence is to know Him as Savior; and this confidence just might change the world.
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