After the long break from our pastoral journey due to COVID-19 restrictions, the MSSP Oratory in Birkirkara has reopened its doors to host its monthly formative courses. We decided to restart with a course that explores an experience we have become very familiar with in the past year and a half – that of anxiety and fear.
For the first time ever in the academic world of psychology, research has been conducted on the emotional effects of a pandemic. The last pandemic, which took place at the beginning of last century, came at a point where studies on emotions had not been formalised yet. However, Schimmenti et al. (2020) have now articulated all the shades of fear we have experienced in these last months. While the pandemic can be said to have generated fear and anxiety in many of us, these two inner states have always been part of our human experience.
Anxiety is generated from within us; it is a sign that something within our being is not as it should be: a need not met properly; a painful memory rekindled by a current incident; a new experience that is equally exciting and terrifying; the loss of a loved one, or other anxiety-inducing events. We are truly not masters of our own house; while our ego strives to keep everything under control, we are not flawless machines, but human beings on a journey towards a hard-fought freedom.
Scripture reminds us that the deepest fear humanity has is that of death, not just physical death, but the possibility of being alienated from life, of being alone and powerless. Psychology explains how our deepest internal defences are all put in place to help us mute this anxiety and make it more bearable. Some of us find ourselves in such inner fragility that we need help to claim as much inner freedom as possible, so as not to be overcome by this anxiety.
But is anxiety something to get rid of? Or is it a necessary evil we cannot do without? Perhaps there is more than meets the eye in the experience of anxiety. Could it be a sign that deep within us things are not as they should be, that we are roaming outside of our comfort zones or touching upon some raw nerve from our life story?
Our anxiety may also be a sign that we are invited to take a step forward, like a child who is invited to make one more stride to conquer the stairs and not give up. The fundamental truth of life, a life lived in fullness, is that growth is inseparable from anxiety. The latter can be the right motivation to avoid regressing or falling into the trap of mediocrity. Anxiety can be that right amount of discomfort that wakens us up from our slumber, because we all have a tendency to settle to a rest position, to find some equilibrium even if it is unhealthy for us.
Anxiety can be the right motivation to avoid regressing or falling into the trap of mediocrity
It is for this reason that Abraham is invited to leave his country, to go to a land that God promised him, so that he may bear the fruit of a new life. His destination was not just a physical land but an uncharted territory in his heart, to come out of a sterile fear and become a blessing to many.