voidance of this evil as
of something altogether possible. Hence Gregory, expounding the words
of Job (26:11), "The pillars of heaven tremble, and dread at His
beck," says (Moral. xvii, 29): "The heavenly powers that gaze on Him
without ceasing, tremble while contemplating: but their awe, lest it
should be of a penal nature, is one not of fear but of wonder,"
because, to wit, they wonder at God's supereminence and
incomprehensibility. Augustine also (De Civ. Dei xiv, 9) in this
sense, admits fear in heaven, although he leaves the question
doubtful. "If," he says, "this chaste fear that endureth for ever and
ever is to be in the future life, it will not be a fear that is
afraid of an evil which might possibly occur, but a fear that holds
fast to a good which we cannot lose. For when we love the good which
we have acquired, with an unchangeable love, without doubt, if it is
allowable to say so, our fear is sure of avoiding evil. Because
chaste fear denotes a will that cannot consent to sin, and whereby we
avoid sin without trembling lest, in our weakness, we fall, and
possess ourselves in the tranquillity born of charity. Else, if no
kind of fear is possible there, perhaps fear is said to endure for
ever and ever, because that which fear will lead us to, will be
everlasting."

Reply Obj. 1: The passage quoted excludes from the blessed, the fear
that denotes solicitude, and anxiety about evil, but not the fear
which is accompanied by security.

Reply Obj. 2: As Dionysius says (Div. Nom. ix) "the same things are
both like and unlike God. They are like by reason of a variable
imitation of the Inimitable"--that is, because, so far as they can,
they imitate God Who cannot be imitated perfectly--"they are unlike
because they are the effects of a Cause of Whom they fall short
infinitely and immeasurably." Hence, if there be no fear in God
(since there is none above Him to whom He may be subject) it does not
follow that there is none in the blessed, whose happiness consists in
perfect subjection to God.

Reply Obj. 3: Hope implies a certain defect, namely the futurity of
happiness, which ceases when happiness is present: whereas fear
implies a natural defect in a creature, in so far as it is infinitely
distant from God, and this defect will remain even in heaven. Hence
fear will not be cast out altogether.
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TWELFTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 19, Art. 12]

Whether Poverty of Spirit Is the Beatitude Correspo