With such thoughts in your mind, now that you have resolved to

"With such thoughts in your mind, now that you have resolved to love Him and please Him with all your strength, your only fear should be to fear God too much and to place too little confidence in Him." These are the words of Alphonsus Liguori, the saint, theologian, and Doctor of the Church, who spent his life guiding souls toward trust in the mercy of God. His counsel is not the voice of terror, but of tenderness. He warns that the gravest danger for the faithful is not rebellion, but despair—that in fearing God as a tyrant, one forgets His nature as a Father.

The ancients often taught of the balance between fear and confidence. To fear rightly is to respect the divine, to stand in awe before majesty. Yet to fear excessively is to stumble into hopelessness, to imagine that God delights only in wrath and not in love. Liguori, with wisdom born of deep prayer, reminds us that we are called to love Him with all our strength, not to cower as slaves but to walk as children. Confidence in God is not arrogance—it is the highest act of trust, the recognition that His mercy is greater than our weakness.

Consider the life of St. Peter, the fisherman who became the first shepherd of Christ’s Church. In his boldness, he swore he would never deny his Master; yet in fear, he faltered three times. Afterward, despair might have consumed him, as it did Judas. But Peter wept, and in those tears discovered the truth: that God’s mercy was greater than his sin. He placed confidence in the Lord’s forgiveness, and by that confidence, he rose to lead, to preach, to give his life as a martyr. Had he feared too much, he would have perished in shame. Instead, trusting love gave him strength to endure.

History, too, offers warnings of the opposite. Many rulers and zealots through the ages feared God in excess, seeing Him only as a stern judge, and so inflicted cruelty upon others in His name. They sought to buy His favor with severity, forgetting mercy, forgetting love. But such fear twists faith into chains. Liguori’s words guard us from this error: true faith is not born of trembling, but of confidence—confidence that God’s goodness exceeds our imagining, and that to serve Him is to serve with joy.

The deeper meaning of Liguori’s teaching is that perfect love casts out fear. To please Him with all your strength is not to strive anxiously, but to live faithfully, offering each day as best you can. God asks for effort, not perfection. He desires trust, not torment. To believe that He is merciful, even when you are weak, is itself an act of worship. Your task is not to measure His patience, but to rest in it.

The lesson is this: do not let fear overshadow love. To fear too much is to doubt His mercy; to trust too little is to insult His goodness. Place your heart in His hands with confidence, and strive each day to love Him with the strength you have, whether great or small. For it is not fear that perfects the soul, but trust. And the one who trusts will never be abandoned.

Practically, this means cultivating habits of confidence in daily life. When you fail, do not despair—rise and return. When you pray, do not imagine only wrath—remember His tenderness. When you serve, do not act as though earning His favor—act because you already have His love. And when fear whispers that you are unworthy, answer with Liguori’s wisdom: “My confidence is not in myself, but in Him.”

So let this teaching be passed down: “Your only fear should be to fear God too much, and to place too little confidence in Him.” Teach it to your children as a shield against despair, remind it to your companions as a call to trust, and whisper it to your own soul when doubt arises. For in the end, the greatest strength is not the trembling fear of judgment, but the steadfast confidence in divine love.