Easter 2026 - Reading #6 - Fear of the Lord
Reading
The Sequence Hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, attributed to Rabanus Maurus and sung at Pentecost for over a thousand years, invokes the Holy Spirit as the source of all gifts: "Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in our souls take up Thy rest; come with Thy grace and heavenly aid to fill the hearts which Thou hast made. O Comforter, to Thee we cry, Thou heavenly gift of God Most High; Thou fount of life, and fire of love, and sweet anointing from above."
The hymn continues: "Thou, in Thy sevenfold gifts art known; Thou, finger of God's hand we own; Thou, promise of the Father, Thou who dost the tongue with power endow. Kindle our senses from above, and make our hearts o'erflow with love; with patience firm and virtue high, the weakness of our flesh supply."
This ancient prayer captures the essential posture before the gifts of the Spirit: invocation. The gifts are not seized but requested, not manufactured but received. The hymn asks the Spirit to come, to fill, to kindle, to supply what is lacking. It is a prayer that presupposes both need and trust: we need what only God can give, and we trust that he will give it if we ask.
Reflection
We close our first week, our week of the fear of the Lord, with the Church's most ancient prayer to the Holy Spirit. For over a thousand years, Christians have sung these words to invoke the gifts we are now exploring. "Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in our souls take up Thy rest." It is a prayer of holy fear and holy desire, mingled together as they always are in the presence of God.
Notice what the hymn asks: "Kindle our senses from above." Not numb our senses, not override them, kindle them. The gifts of the Spirit do not suppress our humanity; they set it on fire. The fear of the Lord, rightly understood, does not shrink us. It awakens us. It is the cold water that jolts us out of spiritual sleep and makes us acutely aware that we are alive, that we are loved, and that we are standing on holy ground.
As we prepare to move into the gift of piety tomorrow, carry with you the foundation this week has laid. The fear of the Lord is the open door, the reverent posture, the trembling awareness that the God we approach is both infinitely good and infinitely greater than our comprehension. This posture will sustain everything that follows. The gifts of the Spirit are not scattered randomly; they build upon one another like the rooms of a great house. Fear of the Lord is the threshold. Piety is the warmth that makes it a home. Step inside.