Banishing Anxiety

Spiritual Life, Fall 2004 by Egan, Keith J

Fix your eyes on the Crucified and everything will become small for you.1 -Teresa of Avila

ANXIETY HAS BEEN RAMPANT since 9/11 of 2001 and perhaps no less so in the aftermath of the war in Iraq. Nothing seems to lower this pervasive anxiety as North Americans wait nervously for the next raising of an alert by Homeland security. Yet, this generation has not been the first to be awash in anxiety. The poet W. H. Auden published his long poem "The Age of Anxiety" in 1946, just after World War II. How much longer Auden's poem would be today were he to ponder the disturbing events of a world divided by deadly animosities. Nearly sixty years after Auden's poem, anxiety is ubiquitous: it darkens hearts and paralyzes the minds of young people as well as their elders. Shall we never be without a sense of doom? How shall we heed Qoheleth's advice to "banish anxiety from your mind" (Eccl 11:10),2 or when shall that prayer of the Eucharist be answered: "In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ"?

Anxiety is no respecter of persons; it spreads its tentacles every which way; its hold is tenacious. The very word anxiety speaks of a strangling sensation, a loss of breath. Anxiety paralyzes, makes one unable to act as one wants. In his modern classic, The Courage To Be, the theologian Paul Tillich sees anxiety as a confrontation with death and meaninglessness-a confrontation that is the lot of every human person because death looms as a certainty for everyone. Meaninglessness strikes because no one is in control of all the events in one's life. For Tillich, anxiety spawns fears about particular issues like sins that are not sins. Anxiety can get out of hand, render one fearful, confuse the mind, and immobilize the will, unable to make important decisions. Anxiety takes on the hue of what the Desert Fathers and Mothers called acedia, or the sadness and listlessness caused by the noonday devil.

Some anxiety becomes so burdensome that it interferes with one's daily life. Then counseling may be a wise option so that one can, with the help of another, learn to rise above the endless tyranny of anxiety. An able spiritual guide can also set one on a mission to eliminate the anxiety that distracts one from following wholeheartedly the desire for God, a desire sown deep in every human heart, a desire not to be frustrated by useless worry.

In these pages, our concern is with the culture of anxiety produced by the recent events that have aggravated the human tendency to worrisomeness and have induced an anxiety that robs one of the peace and tranquility that make for a joyful life. The Christian tradition offers wisdom for overcoming undue fear. We say undue because fear can be reasonable and can save us from harm. Fear of a bear on the loose, of an imminent hurricane, or of a burglar on one's doorstep: these are reasonable fears and may save one's life. But what we want to eliminate are unreasonable fears that sap one's energy and waste valuable time, which is better spent growing in holiness and in improving the lot of neighbors who live in a very weary world. Unreasonable fears and irrational anxiety "weighs down the human heart" (Prv 12:25) and brings on "premature old age" (Sir 30:24). Many are the reasons to curb anxiety and needless fretting. An anxious heart keeps one from attending to life's real issues. As T. S. Eliot has written, "Humankind cannot bear very much reality."3 But reality (truth), says Jesus, is what makes one free (Jn 8:32). Pursue the real; anxiety will be sent on the run.

Jesus Liberator of the Anxious Heart

Jesus not only died for the sins of all, but he relentlessly sought to set our hearts free of anxiety. At the last supper Jesus told his followers:

Do not let your hearts be troubled.... Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.... Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (Jn 14:1, 27)

The constant message of Jesus was "Do not be afraid." That was what Jesus said to the disciples when they "were terrified" during a "rough" storm that made them anxious (Jn 6:19-20). When Mary Magdalene and the other Mary "left the tomb quickly and with fear and great joy," "Jesus met them" and said to them, "Do not be afraid" (Mt 28:8-10). This is the same Jesus who said to his listeners, "Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows." In that same chapter of Luke's Gospel are these wonderfully reassuring words of Jesus: "Consider the lilies of the field" and "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Lk 12:7, 27, 32). Jesus has bequeathed to the world a peace and a joy that flourishes in the kingdom of God's presence. In Christ we have a brother who walks with us as we journey to God. Useless fear and pernicious anxiety shrink a heart that is called by Jesus to expand with freedom and love.

If our sins weigh heavy on the heart, no matter how grievous they are, the merciful father spots us at a distance and is "filled with compassion,...puts his arms around" us and "kisses" us, saying "get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate" (Lk 15). No fretting about our sins or worrying about how we have confessed them is worth a hill of beans. What counts is that we put everything into the lap of a compassionate God who loves us to the very core of our being. Jesus, the Good Samaritan, wants only to bandage our wounds and to "put oil and wine on them" (Lk 10:29ff). From Paul's knowledge of a forgiving Jesus, he could say, "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear" (Rom 8:15). Followers of Jesus need to travel light, with hearts not weighed down by fear and anxiety.