Fear Him, because if there is a God, then you better do what you're told.... We believe God is good so when He gives us commandments, when he places responsibilities on our shoulders, we believe it is for our good. But whether you believe that or not is irrelevant. You should fear Him because if you don't obey Him and seek to serve Him, there are dire repercussions.
What happens to the servant in the Gospel today? The good that he did have was taken away from him and he was cast into the outer darkness where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. And we know what that means. Anytime we hear that imagery, that is Hell. Eternal damnation.
So how do we know individually whether we fear God sufficiently?... When you know what God wants of you, and you're still not doing it, it's for the simple reason that you don't fear God enough. You fear the thing that He's asking of you more. That's the grave error. And we usually fear it because of the suffering that will come from doing God's will. ...
It's important that we look deeply into our hearts and evaluate our degree of love and fear of God. ... Many souls are lost, not because they weren't perfect saints, but because they didn't fear Him enough.
Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; Ps 128 1-2, 3, 4-5; 1 Thes 5:1-6; Mt 25:14-30
Mass can be viewed in its entirety on our youtube channel. Homily begins at 22:36. We apologize for the audio quality.