Love, Not Fear

It is true that in every single system of authoritarianism fear is the basis of obedience. But because we start with the Person of Christ, the basis of our obedience is not fear, it is love. You cannot love dialectical materialism, but you can love a person. Between our Lord and us there is the bond of love. These two are inseparable. That is why our Lord did not communicate to Peter the power of ruling and governing his Church until Peter told our Lord three times that he loved him. The power to command in the Church comes only from obedience to Christ.  Therefore, the submission that we as Catholics make to the Church is something like the submission that we make to one of our most devoted friends. It is like the obedience of a son to a loving father. We do not feel any distance between our Lord and us. As a pupil becomes more and more attached to his teacher by absorbing more of the truths of the teacher, so too, the more we become more and more united to Christ, the more we love him and also the more truth we absorb. The more we know our Lord, the more we obey the truth manifested through his Church, and the less we fear. That is why scripture says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” The more his truth abounds, the more we love him.