Reverence is an appropriate feeling of deep respect, awe, or veneration. Reverence for God can elicit “fear” (Proverbs 1:7), and worshiping God should be with “reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28-29). Albert Schweitzer notes a “reverence for life.” He contends that ethics and political life have largely lost the core tenet shared with nature, namely, that we all live and want to go on living. Paul Woodruff explores the ancient virtue of reverence in his 2001 book. He holds that reverence is a cardinal virtue, defined as a “well-developed capacity to have the feelings of awe, respect, and shame when these are the right feelings to have.” Modern life has lost a lot of the reverence for family time, sharing a meal together, reverence for our democratic duties as citizens to vote, or reverence for authority figures. We kept other ceremonies like a memorial for a dead friend or standing for the national anthem. Reverence, Woodruff explains, has the feature that “it cannot be changed or controlled by human means, is not fully understood by human experts, was not created by human beings, and is transcendent.”

The phenomenology of reverence, or what religious reverence feels like, is something I can describe only from my own introspection. To me, reverence is an active relational feeling instead of something passively bestowed upon me. It is deeply engaging and bleeds into ideas of worship.

It taps into the indescribable relation we have to God; as some describe as the I-thou relation. The finite and infinite. The categorical difference. We cannot comprehend it, but it is so familiar to us because we are created for it. We avoid it and find distraction because it is an overwhelming feeling. Once we appreciate it, everything in our lives—all the distractions, feeble goals, and passing value—instantly becomes insignificant. It puts our minds to the limits of ourselves and the possibility of what’s beyond. The spiritual. It goes beyond fear. It is the trembling that comes with facing something so much larger than ourselves that we feel like nothing. Our life can be extinguished, and it would pale in comparison to the ultimate greatness.

From reverence comes sober humility. Perfect humility doesn’t need modesty because it doesn’t even think about oneself needing to be modest. The closer we get to humility, the more we forget ourselves and think of others. Never will we think of ourselves more highly than others, but with faith, we can act in wise judgment. We can align ourselves with the wisdom of God and see the world more clearly. We can come closer with reverence and fear of the Lord to the truth. The truth of the world is knowing the truth of Christ and unveiling what the world really is.

The phenomenology is close to what Immanuel Kant characterizes as the sublime towards certain aesthetic experiences. Experiences of the sublime can be triggered by the vastness of space, a great thunderstorm, or a vast mountain. A great unknown, something larger than us, or something greater in comparison to us. Kant experienced the stars in the sky filled him with awe, and the heavens declare the glory of God. It’s an aesthetic quality commonly associated with nature. It is our taste of the vastness and eternity of heaven. The most magnified thing in our world is our experience of nature. There is no comparison to the firsthand experience. Everything is God’s creation. Seeing God’s touch in nature is a unique beauty. It brings out our soul to call for the Lord and want something beyond this life. For this reason, we should experience this feeling and nature quite often. Solitude with nature and God.

Others have observed the sublime in the context of music. It sparks an emotion of ascendancy and transcendence. I still don’t quite understand it. I’m not skilled enough. It takes a lot of skill and work to appreciate the finer nuances and develop the appreciation for some types of beauty. It takes work and time. Perhaps this is the power of religious music. Aesthetic pleasure in the arts only emulates this. Every art and science can be beautiful in the right light.

Modern culture has downplayed the sacred, and the sacred is tied to reverence. In the Christian life, our acts of worship and devotion can dangerously become complacent routines rather than acts of reverence. We must tap into the experience of the sublime with God as a renewal of faith and reflect on what Christ has done with reverence.