If I asked you right now, “What are you anxious about?”… what would come to mind? Maybe it’s gas prices, interest rates, or the cost of just about everything. Maybe it’s political issues, the conflict with Iran, concerns about the power of artificial intelligence, or any of the countless other threats and problems that are placed in front of us every day.
This raises another interesting question: How much anxiety in our lives comes from the things that actually happen to us, and how much comes from the things we are constantly being told to worry about?
We live in a world where the average American spends something like six hours a day looking at screens. And a lot of what comes across those screens is designed to get our attention by making us angry, frightened or outraged. The news cycle has discovered that the crisis of anxiety is very good for business. The more worried we are, the more we click, scroll and watch. We do so almost subconsciously at this point, and then we wonder why we have trouble finding peace.
With this sense of worry and foreboding all around us, St. Paul’s words in the second reading are especially meaningful: “Have no anxiety at all.” That would make perfect sense coming from someone sitting on a beach, enjoying a peaceful retirement. But Paul wasn’t on easy street. He was under house arrest in Rome, in chains and under guard, waiting for his trial. He knew that his faith in Christ could very well lead to his execution. And yet his advice is still, “Have no anxiety at all.”
St. Paul isn't telling us to pretend that problems don't exist. He isn't saying that there aren't legitimate things to be concerned about. He is telling us that anxiety doesn't have to control us. Instead, he offers a better way: “In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God…will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
That is a very different way of living.
I think one of the problems for us is that we spend an enormous amount of time looking at everything except Christ. We wake up and reach for our phones. We check the news, scroll through social media, listen to commentary and read about the latest crisis. Before we know it, our minds are filled with the problems of the entire world, most of which we have absolutely no power to change or grace to get involved with, and we get consumed worrying about them.
I'm not speaking from some high and mighty place. I struggle with this too. I have a bad habit of reading news commentary before bed. Lately, I’ve also been spending far too much time stalking real estate. Neither is an especially good way to end the day. If the last things I am putting into my mind before I go to sleep are political commentary, bad news or houses I will never be able to buy, I'm not exactly giving God much opportunity to have the last word.
So recently I put a little New Testament on my nightstand. And I have made myself read for about five minutes every night, no matter how tired I am. The difference is no surprise but wonderfully noticeable: peace. Five minutes isn't much, but there is something very different about ending the day looking at the Lord rather than looking at the problems of the world or feeding the desire for more stuff.
And that gets us to the second part of Paul's advice. He says, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, whatever is excellent, whatever is worthy of praise, think about these things.”
In other words, pay attention to what you are putting into your mind.
Our thoughts matter. What we repeatedly look at, listen to and dwell upon shapes the way we see the world and what our interior life becomes. If we spend hours consuming anger, outrage and anxiety, we shouldn't be surprised when we become more anxious, more angry and more discouraged.
So perhaps one of the simplest spiritual habits we could adopt is to fast from the news and the internet for a little while every day. Put down the phone. Turn off the television. We don't have to know every breaking story the moment it breaks, or carry the entire world around in our heads.
Instead, give some of that attention to Christ. Read a little bit of the Gospels. Read the daily Mass readings. Spend a few minutes sitting quietly in the presence of God. Better yet, come here and sit in this church or in the Adoration Chapel. Let your mind become quiet enough to remember that God is here and listen to what he has to say. Ultimately, the answer to anxiety isn't simply less information. It's more of God.
St. Paul knew suffering, uncertainty, imprisonment and the possibility of death. And yet he could say, “Have no anxiety at all.” The saints weren't people who lived in a world without problems. They were people who knew where to look when problems came.
So that's our challenge today. First of all to figure out: Where is our anxiety? What are we worried about right now? And how might we be feeding it in the things we watch, listen to, and think about?
And then after we identify the problem, we must follow St. Paul… by having no anxiety… Being prayerful… And turning our mind toward all that is good. The world will always give us something to worry about. But Christ is always giving us reasons to have peace!
