Timidity or Cowardliness

Sin puts disorder into human acts. Now, fear which is ordinate, and in line with right reason, helps a man shun what he ought to shun; this is a good fear, not a sinful fear. Indeed, when such ordinate fear is imparted as a supernatural dowerto the soul, it is called the gift of fear; it is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. But inordinate fear leads a manto avoid what virtue requires him to face and endure. This is the sinful fear called cowardice or timidity.

Fear shrinks from what is apprehended as evil, and especially from the physical evil of death. Fortitude stands up to such evils. It is evident, therefore, that sinful fear stands opposed to the virtue of fortitude.

Sinful fear is often a venial sin. But it can be a mortal sin. It is mortal sin when it makes a man ready to violate divine law in serious matters in order to escape what is feared. Thus the fear that leads a man to deny the faith rather than enduremartyrdom, is a mortally sinful fear.

Yet fear diminishes a man’s responsibility somewhat, and, to that extent, excuses from sin. For fear is a stress which bears on the will and hampers its free choice. What is done from a motive of fear, however great, is indeed simply voluntary, but at the same time is in some sense involuntary, since it would not be done except for the stress of fear. Hence, an act done through fear is a mixture of voluntary and involuntary. But it is voluntary enough to make a man responsible, even for mortal sin.