SEND THE AFRAID HOME

Many of our parents warned us to be careful about the people we might choose to spend time with. As someone who had converted to the Christian faith and had written much on this process, as well as defended and explained the faith to wide audiences, it seems C. S. Lewis would have agreed: “The society of unbelievers makes Faith harder even when they are people whose opinions on any other subject are known to be worthless.”* We need to be careful not to cut ourselves off from neighbors and friends who believe differently from us, but we also need to be conscious of the influence that time spent with others can have on our own thinking and believing. This would be an important reason why the officers in the army of the Israelites would invite those who were afraid to return home as they were about to go into battle. One frightened soldier would discourage their fellow soldiers, and the ripple effect could undermine the courage of the entire army. Again, we should not be cut off from people around us, but what about those people who are always fearful, who seem to spread fear wherever they go, whether in personal interactions and conversations or by what they share online? It is difficult to be courageous if we regularly hear and see the fears of others.

It seems both Moses and Lewis would counsel discernment in the time and attention we give to the fearful and the fearmongers among us, whether in battle or in our everyday lives of faith. Perhaps we can offer them, instead, the message of the priest: “Do not be afraid. God is with us.”

* C. S. Lewis, “Religion: Reality or Substitute?” Christian Reflections (London: Fount, 1981), 62.