FRIDAY
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4–5).
The strongest fear within us is the fear of death. The Lord, however, teaches that the fear of God must be greater than the fear of death.
If circumstances arise in which you must either lose your life or act contrary to the fear of God, choose death rather than sin. For if you act against the fear of God, then after bodily death—which you cannot escape in any case—you will encounter the second death, which is immeasurably more terrible than even the most dreadful physical death.
If we always kept this in mind, the fear of God would never grow weak within us, and we would never commit deeds contrary to it.
Suppose the passions begin to stir within us. At the very moment they arise, our conscience, awakened by the fear of God, demands that we resist them. Refusing to satisfy the demands of the passions will seem to us like parting with life itself, like putting the body to death.
Therefore, when such a disturbance of the senses arises and begins to shake your conscience, hasten to awaken within yourself the fear of God and the remembrance of His Judgment and its consequences.
Then the fear of the more terrible death will drive away the fear of the lesser death, and it will become easier for you to remain steadfast in the demands of duty and conscience.
Thus is fulfilled the saying of Ecclesiasticus:
“Remember your end, and you will never sin.” (Sirach 7:36).
+ St. Theophan the Recluse, Thoughts for Each Day of the Year