70 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
70 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
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How Do You Spell ANXIETY?
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Fr. Michael Crosby, OFM
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. There's a story told about St. Francis of Assisi, that one day he
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noticed a serious young friar sitting alone, very much lost in
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himself, while the rest of the community was enjoying good
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conversation. Francis went over to him and whispered: "My son, if
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you're in sin go find a confessor. If not, then come and join your
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brothers."
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. For Francis, the only real worry in life was being in sin, and
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the Lord had already provided a remedy for that. So a hallmark of
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spirituality was joy and peace.
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. In this he was following the teaching of Jesus who so often
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greeted his disciples with "peace", and urged them, "Fear not, I am
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with you."
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. Jesus and every Christian teacher since him has warned us about
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the destructive power of fear, and the creative power even of personal
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disaster when it is accepted with trusting love. Jesus reminded us
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that most of the things we are worried about are out of our control
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anyway, so we're much better off when we let go of our anxious cares
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and let him be Lord.
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. Just say the word "anxiety" slowly, and discover its weakness.
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Right in the middle of "a-n-x-i-e-t-y" is that sound: "I". It stands
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there like a little idol, that "I", that ego. It proclaims that I
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trust more in me than in God, and that's why I am anxious about me
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rather than trusting in him. There are other ways to spell anxiety,
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such as guilt, trials and pain. All of them contain that central
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weakness: the "I" that is afraid to surrender self-reliance to the
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Lord.
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. We read in the very first pages of scripture that after God
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finished his work of creation, he saw that what he had done was good -
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- not perfect, that was for another realm -- but good. So he rested
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from his work.
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. Now God did not rest because he was fatigued. He rested because
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he wanted to appreciate the good he had accomplished, and to declare
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his confidence in the stewardship he had invested in Adam and Eve. So
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he backed off, not indifferent to the welfare of creation, but
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confident in the eventual accomplishment of his purpose, no matter how
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we humans might fumble and abuse his providence.
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. That was a tremendous act of hope on the part of God. He
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professed his trust in us, and followed through on that trust by
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respecting our need to learn from our mistakes. Now it's our turn to
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return that gift of trust by investing our security in God.
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. Another peaceful saint, Philip Neri, was noted for his trust in
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God. While still a seminarian, he was shooting pool when one of his
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classmates tried to distract him with the question: "What would you
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do, Philip, if you knew the Lord was going to call you home to himself
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two minutes from now?" It was a problem calculated to cause anxiety.
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But Philip never broke his concentration on either his game or his God
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as he replied: "I'd sink the eight-ball into the side pocket."
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. In our relationships with each other and with God, the less we
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concentrate on us and the more we consider the other, the greater will
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be our peace. Check this in your own life: the more you try to
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control others the more anxiety you create for yourself. Even our
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prayer life becomes anxiety-ridden if it is filled with ourselves and
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our needs rather than with the Lord. St. Augustine observes wisely in
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his Confessions:
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. "You are always present, O Lord, to those who seek your help.
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You respond clearly, but we do not always hear you clearly. We ask
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what we want, but we do not always hear the answer you want. Your
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best servant is the one who is intent to hear not so much his own
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wants responded to, as to respond to whatever he hears you want of
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him."
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. One of the Psalms says it so directly: "Be at peace and accept
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that I am God." When we admit God as Lord of our life, there is no
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room for anxiety.
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