Meekness and Fear

Auferat a me virgam suam, et pavor ejus non me terreat. Mansuetudine potius quam terrore nos correxit. Per legem quippe virgam Deus tenuerat, cum dicebat: Si quis haec vel illa fecerit, morte moriatur. Sed incarnatus virgam abstulit, quia vias vitae per mansuetudinem ostendit. Unde ei per Psalmistam dicitur: Intende, prospere procede, et regna, propter veritatem et mansuetudinem et justitiam. Timeri quippe quasi Deus noluit, sed quasi pater ut amaretur inspiravit. Quod liquido Paulus dicit: Non enim accepistis spiritum servitutis iterum in timore, sed accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum, in quo clamamus, 'Abba pater'. Unde hic quoque apte subjungitur: Loquar, et non timebo eum. Timor a peccato nos suscitare non valuit. Vir enim sanctus, quia humani generis Redemptorem venire mitem conspicit, non metum ad Dominum, sed affectum ad patrem sumit; et timorem despicit, quia per adoptionis gratiam ad amorem surgit. Hinc Joannes ait: Timor non est in charitate, sed perfecta charitas foras mittit timorem. Hinc Zacharias dicit: Ut sine timore de manu inimicorum nostrorum liberati serviamus illi. A peccati igitur morte timor nos suscitare non valuit, sed ad statum vitae aspirata mansuetudinis gratia erexit. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, Moralia, sive Expositio in Job, Liber IX

Let Him take away His rod from Me, and let not His fear terrify me.1 Meekness rather than fear corrects us. For in the Law God held the rod, in that He said: If someone do this or that, let him die the death. But in the Incarnation He removed the rod because He showed the paths of life by meekness.  So it is said to Him by the Psalmist: 'Set forward, go forth prosperously and rejoice, because of truth and meekness and righteousness.' 2 For He had no wish to be feared as God, but he has inspired us that as a Father He should be loved. Thus Paul clearly says, 'For you have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, 'Abba, Father.' 3  Hence too it is rightly added here, I would speak and not fear Him.4 Fear on account of sin is not able to lift us up. The holy man, because he sees the Redeemer of the human race coming in meekness, does not assume fear towards a Master, but affection towards a Father, and he looks down on fear, because through the grace of adoption he rises up to love.  Hence John says: 'There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.' 5 Hence Zechariah says, 'That delivered out of the hand of our enemies we might serve Him without fear.'6 Therefore fear was not able to raise us from the death of sin, but the infused grace of meekness erected us to the condition of life. Saint Gregory the Great, Commentary on Job, Book 9 1 Job 9.34 2 Ps 44.5  3 Rom 8.15  4 Job 9.35  5 1 Jn 4.18  6 Lk 1.74