The Fathers never feared to call God both good and severe. Clement of Alexandria shows us why: divine love rebukes precisely because it desires healing. The Instructor, Christ Himself, uses correction, fear, and compassion to bring souls back from ruin, much like a physician who cuts to cure. Augustine, in Letter 50, thunders against the pagan magistrates of Suffectum, whose idolatry led them to massacre Christians. He shames them with irony—offering to rebuild their lifeless Hercules if only they will restore the lives they took—and then turns their cruelty into a call to repentance. Aquinas, in Summa Theologica, reminds us that every fear grows from love: we fear only the loss of what we cherish. To love rightly, then, is to fear rightly—not the loss of worldly goods, but the loss of God Himself (Psalm 19:9).

Readings:

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 9 (Part 1)

Augustine, Letter 50

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 43, Article 1

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