3 A C: Let go of anxiety in favor of joy

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

One of my favorite scenes from the musical Come From Away tells the true story of a group of people from a country in Africa that were flying to the United States on September 11, 2001. The attacks started happening while their plane was over the Atlantic so they got rerouted to a small town of nine thousand people named Gander in Newfoundland, Canada. The poor African passengers had no one that could speak their language so they exited the plane and boarded the provided buses several hours after landing in Gander with a certain reluctance and anxiousness. They were bused out to a camp the Salvation Army had set up in the middle of nowhere. The Salvation Army workers, wanting to look professional and impressive to their visitors, had dusted off their old uniforms, which only added to the anxiety the African people felt. They worried they were being taken out to the middle of nowhere to be executed but they couldn’t understand their bus driver and their bus driver couldn’t understand them. Finally, the bus driver noticed that the woman sitting next to the man who seemed to be in charge was fearfully clutching a Bible. He knew he couldn’t read the words to her but he counted on the fact that Bibles have a common order and number system. He found Phillippians 4:6, which is a part of our second reading for Mass, and pointed to it while handing the Bible back to the man. The man, in his language, heard St. Paul say, “Be anxious for nothing” or, as it is translated in our second reading, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” And, as it says in the play, that’s when they started speaking the same language, a language of joy and hope translated by an Apostle who lived 2000 years before them. 

What’s making you anxious today?

Are you worried about the omicron variant and wondering if it’s going to mean that, once again, some members of your family won’t feel safe gathering with everyone else? Are you anxious about interest rates increasing and the cost of everything going up? Are you worried about Archbishop Jackels talking about the need for pastoral planning to happen in our Archdiocese, meaning we may have to close parishes? Are you anxious about a confrontation you recently had with friends or coworkers that has made the relationship tense or has made you so angry that it seems like the only thing you can think about? Are you worried about a friend’s health or your own health? 

There are points where anxiety can’t be easily overcome by pointing to Phillippians 4:6. With all due respect to St. Paul, just telling someone not to be anxious doesn’t always make the anxiety go away. Sometimes we need to talk to a professional and get help. And that’s okay. We need to do what we can to keep removing the stigma attached to people talking to counselors and psychologists and psychiatrists. Anxiety and depression can’t always be removed simply by willing it to happen or telling it to go away. We need to and help and support, not mock or belittle, people who have anxiety. 

Still, there are times in our lives when anxiety is more situationally based and less having to do with the chemicals in our brains. In those situations, I think St. Paul offers us the perfect antidote. Begin by rejoicing in the Lord always and in all things. In the good weather and bad weather, in the hard relationships and in the deep friendships, in things we do well and in things we do poorly, rejoice in the Lord always. St. Paul says joy and kindness should be the hallmarks of Christians. Instead of anxiety, when it arises, say a prayer to God and then trust that God will answer that prayer. 

Have you prayed to God about what is causing your anxiety? If so, remember that prayer isn’t your way of ordering God to do it your way but your way of asking God for help while understanding that it is always about God’s will and not our own. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been praying for God to take away the coronavirus ever since March of 2021 but it’s still here. How can we be people of joy and kindness despite its continued presence? If you’re worried about the cost of things increasing and how it will affect your business or your ability to get necessary things, how can you find joy and hope in possibly having less? If you’re worried about your parish closing, have you prayed to God asking him to send more priests while encouraging your sons and grandsons to consider it? Have you talked about the church in a way that makes them want to be a part of it or are you constantly running down the Archbishop or me or Fr. Dave or the church in general? I should make it clear, by the way, that Archbishop Jackels doesn’t have a secret list of parishes he intends to close and that there is much work to get done before any decision on any parish will be made. What we would be wise to do if this is our concern is to bolster the identity of our parish and not get anxious and, therefore, defensive. We should be even more joyful and even more kind. We should be inviting people to be a part of our parish and welcoming those who are here. We should be looking for ways to serve the poor and shelter the homeless. We can’t get angry and spiteful and expect the Archbishop or anyone else for that matter to see in us a parish that really deserves to stay open. 

Over and over again, what inspires me about that small town of Gander on September 11, 2001, is that they responded to a very anxious situation with nothing but joy and kindness. On this Gaudete Sunday, let’s take St. Paul seriously, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near.”