Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time · Mass

8:49 I'll wait you to have a seat. So I recently came upon a story of, a tragic story of a father and a son. This father and son, they had a good relationship. relationship that the son wasn't just a son, you know, obviously kind of immature and whatnot, but his father, he loved his father and his father was a good dad. And at one point, the two of them, they were out in a place that was dangerous and there was an accident. and at one point it was either the son was going to die or the father would die, and the father sacrificed himself so that his son could live, and the father died. The son, not only was he heartbroken because he lost his father, but he also believed it was his fault, and so he ran away.

9:45 He wanted to get as far away as possible. that belief, that belief that my dad's dead and it's my fault ate him up. He ran away, again, far from home, and he met two characters. These people could, these characters could tell he was going through it. They could tell he'd been through some things.

10:07 It also turns out that while he was gone, his father's brother had, And it turns out he had actually plotted the dad's death. And while this son was off, the father's brother basically brought his own gang into this area, and they took over his father's land, and they basically enslaved his father's family and his father's wife. And this whole time, the son is off for years, years with these two characters. and even though they knew that he was going through it, even though they knew he was beaten up, all they could tell him was just, hey, don't worry. Whatever it is, just don't worry. Of course, they didn't say it like that. They said it in Swahili and so they just kept saying Hakuta Matata. This is the story. This is the story of the Lion King, right?

11:00 But imagine like the trauma. I think this is one of those things where you have to say it like this to realize, to appreciate the trauma that Simba had gone through. And then these two guys come along and they say, yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. Your dad's dead. You think it's your fault? but don't worry about it. Yeah, your mom is enslaved by your uncle, Scar, but don't worry about it. Yes, everything is chaos, hakuna matata. It makes absolutely no sense. Just this idea, don't worry.

11:26 And yet sometimes that's what it feels like we're being told. You know, we recognize, right, that anxiety, worry is literally at an all-time high in our culture right now. It's everywhere, it's on the rise. In fact, I think it was maybe a decade ago that clinical anxiety just overtook clinical depression as the number one mental health issue among college students. That more people are suffering from clinical anxiety than virtually any other medical diagnosis. And it is. So because anxiety can take a number of different forms. It can be clinical anxiety, right, where someone needs to get help, right? It would be good for them to maybe get medication, to get counseling. That would be great. But also we realize that anxiety, we also realize that worry can sometimes be temperament. In fact, there was a study that said, that found that some people are just wired to be more anxious. Some people are just, I think it was something about between 13 and 15% of people are just kind of naturally temperamentally more anxious.

12:24 I also came across a study that said the exact same percentage was true in cats. I don't know what that means, but there it is. But sometimes we have this clinical anxiety, right? Which should be treated. Sometimes we just have the temperament of, I'm kind of a worrier. And sometimes we have just the emotion, right? The emotion of I'm feeling nervous. I'm feeling scared. I'm feeling uncertain. But I think for most of us, for most of us, worry has become the background noise for most of our life. I think for a lot of us, it's not necessarily on a clinical level, not necessarily any kind of momentary thing. it's worry has become like the soundtrack of our lives. It's just always there. We spent the last over a month looking at these things called blind spots based off of Psalm 19 where the psalmist said, from hidden faults, O Lord, equip me.

13:19 And so these blind spots are what we call like acceptable sins. They're invisible vices. They're the kind of sins that we don't really think that we need to be aware of. We don't think that we need to repent of because they're just kind of always there. We talked about gossip and anger and entitlement. We talked about complaint. This week, we have St. Paul coming along, and he says, have no anxiety about anything. Now, we have to understand this before we go any further. When St. Paul says, have no anxiety about anything, a couple things. We realize that if someone has clinical anxiety, mental illness is not a sin. It's just like cancer is not a sin. A broken leg is not a sin. So mental illness is not a sin. So we don't put it, it's not in that category. Another thing to realize, emotions, to feel simply the emotion of worry, the emotion of anxiety, that's also not sinful. The issue is, what St. Paul's talking about is, what happens when we allow worry, when we allow anxiety, to be our constant companion? What is just always with us?

14:13 To us, St. Paul says, okay, have no anxiety at all. Now, when he's saying that, he is not saying what Timon and Pumbaa said. He's not saying like, you know, hey, just don't think about it. Don't care about it. He's not saying don't be concerned. Now, we know this because at other places, Paul talks about how he's anxious. This is the St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 4. In chapter 2, he goes on and on about one of his friends, Epaphroditus. In Epaphroditus in chapter 2, he is ill. He almost died. And St. Paul even says, I want Epaphroditus to get to you so that I no longer have to be anxious. Later on, St. Paul, second letter to Corinthians, he says this. He goes through a list of all of the things that have hurt him as being an ambassador for the gospel. that he's been shipwrecked, he's been beaten, he's been stoned, all these things. He says, but above all, he says, is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

15:11 So Paul says that he has some anxiety. Paul says he has been known to worry. And then he tells us, have no anxiety at all. What's he talking about? Paul is talking about being concerned. For when it comes to himself, when it comes to Epaphroditus, when it comes to his concern for the churches, he's talking about being attentive. He's talking about, he's talking with the heart of someone who actually cares.

15:33 Just like anyone who cares. That if you have a family, you should be concerned. How are you going to provide for your family? If you own a home, you should lock your door and be concerned about the safety of your home. That if there's anything you have to get ready for, we should be concerned enough to prepare. Again, we could say, well, Paul said no worries. And so like, you know, I'm not going to study. He said, no worries. I'm not going to plan. He said, no worries. I'm not going to prepare. He said, no worries. Again, Timon and Pumbaa are not good friends. Do not listen to Timon and Pumbaa. We have to listen to Paul because Paul is saying, have no anxiety. That does not translate to, I'll just not care. That'll be my solution. Because we realize this, not caring is not an option. Like for the Christian, not caring is not an option. Why? Because the great commandment is to love. and love means you care and concern is the burden that love gives me you know when I was growing up my dad would be like ah Mike I was worried about you and I'm like dad you don't have to worry and he would always say this he's like I'm your father it's my job to worry and I would think that's a horrible job description like terrible but I get it the notion of concern is the burden that love gives me at the same time, more worry does not equal more love. Like I often have worry is my attempt to carry the burden of love without surrendering that burden to God. Because we realize concern and worry are fundamentally different because concern and worry ask fundamentally different questions. Concern asks the question, what can I do? That's the question concern asks. The concern, if I really care, I look at whatever the situation is, whatever the, whoever the person is and say, okay, what can I do? Why? Because I care. So concern prompts action. But worry doesn't ask the same question. Worry asks the question, what if? And it goes around and around. It's just like, well, what if this and what if that? Worry merely rehearses futures that we can't control.

17:38 So the difference between control, or sorry, concern and worry, concern asks the question, What can I do? And worry asks the question, what if? Because why? Because so often worry comes from uncertainty. How many times have we been in a situation where we say something like, well, I just don't know what to do. We have this uncertainty. And yet, when I say I don't know what to do, I have to ask myself the question, do I actually mean I don't know what's going to happen? Like when I say I don't know what to do, do I actually mean I don't know how this will end? Just consider this. Is it really true that just because I don't know how this will end, does that mean I don't know where to start?

18:25 Because we have to ask ourselves the question, do I truly not know the next right step? Or do I merely not know the step after that? I came across a woman, her name is Tracy Kajewski-Korea. But she's an engineer by training. And her current work, her current ministry essentially is that she goes into disaster areas immediately after a disaster. What she'll do is if there is a tsunami, she'd be basically the first person on the ground. If there is an earthquake, she and her team are the first people on the ground. If there's any kind of massive tragedy where there is incredible devastation, She and her team are the first people there because they're there to see what they can do to help immediately. And secondly, how did this happen and how can you prevent it in the future? It's this incredible, incredible work. I remember talking with her about this and I said, because she's describing the devastation. She was describing what it is to be among the first people entering into this disaster area.

19:22 I say, well, how do you know what to do? Like there's everything's in an earthquake. Everything's been leveled. In a tsunami, everything's underwater. There are so many people whose lives have been devastated. They're dead. They've lost everything. I said, when you're standing there, how do you know what to do? And she said, actually, it's simple. So how can it be simple? Everything is wrong. She says, it's simple. All I do is I ask the question, what is the next right thing? That's it. And so how often are we overwhelmed by that? How often are we overwhelmed by everything that needs to get done and it needs to get done now? And here's Tracy who just says, okay, in the midst of devastation, in the midst of destruction, I just ask, okay, what's the next right thing? There was a book that came out not too long ago by Andy Weir. It's called The Martian. They made a movie about it with Matt Damon. So The Martian, the whole story is this, is there's an astronaut named Mark Watney.

20:18 And Mark Watney is an astronaut that's gone to Mars, right? And so they're on Mars. And at some point, this Martian storm happens. and the astronauts have to escape. But Mark Watney has been like pierced by this pole. They think he's dead. So they leave him on Mars as the rest of his team escapes to get back to Earth. He wakes up and he realizes he's been stranded on Mars. And it's, I remember reading this book thinking, oh my goodness, what in the world would you do next? And it's remarkable because in the book and in the movie, he just does the next right thing. He's like, okay, I have a pole through my chest or my stomach. How do I fix the pole thing? How do I make sure I don't get infected? Okay, I need to have water. Where do I get water? Okay, I need to make some food. Where do I get food? And he just, I mean, the goal is, how do I get the 140 million miles from Mars to Earth?

21:11 But the question he asked was not, where will this end up? The question is, what's the next right thing? doing the next right thing kills anxiety. Even if I don't know the perfect next right thing, I was talking to a man who spent almost three decades in the special ops unit in the United States Army. And in his particular unit of people are known as essentially the world's best decision makers. This team of guys are the best decision makers in the world. And I asked him about it, and he's like, you know, people always say that about us. He's like, maybe we are, maybe we aren't. But we're not, he said this, he said, we're not great decision makers because we always make the perfect decision. He said, we're not even great decision makers because we always make the best decision. So we're considered great decision makers because we make quick decisions. And then if we need to pivot, we pivot. But the thing is, they don't fret. They don't worry about the consequences, they just act. They just decide. And this is our thing. Our worry keeps us stuck.

22:17 Doesn't our worry keep us stuck all the time? We have this anxiety-induced paralysis. Some people call it procrastination, but I'll call it, it sounds more fancy, by saying anxiety-induced paralysis, where I'm afraid of the future. In fact, there is this treatment facility. It's a residential treatment facility for adolescents who are going through real severe anxiety or OCD. It's called Mountain Valley Treatment Center. And they offered, I think, the single best definition of anxiety I've ever come across. Here's how they define anxiety. They say anxiety is the overestimation of danger and the underestimation of one's ability to cope.

22:55 That's where anxiety comes from, right? This overestimation of danger and the underestimation of my ability to cope. you know at the same time I think the blind spot of that anxiety persists because we tend to believe that our worry is is necessary it's useful and that it's somehow keeping me safe this is this is what we do even if I realize okay anxiety comes from the overestimation of danger underestimation my ability to hope I think yeah but at the same time it's still necessary yeah at the same time, it's still useful. At the same time, it's still somehow keeping me safe. And yet, the reality, of course, is I think, okay, what am I believing if I believe that my worry is necessary? It means I sometimes think that my worry proves that I care. Sometimes, like my dad, you know, I'm your dad. It's my job to worry. I think sometimes my worry proves that I'm responsible. See, I'm worrying about this thing. I'm not just flighty. I don't just forget these things, I care. I think this. I think that sometimes we believe our worry is necessary because we believe that if I'm not worried, nothing will get done. The truth of the matter is there is other fuel for forward motion than worry. Simon Sinek is a speaker and an author.

24:09 At one point, he talked about watching Olympians, Olympic champions, getting interviewed after their event, after the race, after the game. And the interviewer was asking them the question of, As you went into this game, as you went into this race, were you nervous? A number of them looked at the interviewer and responded with this. They said, no, I'm not nervous. I wasn't nervous. I was excited. There's different fuel for getting things done other than worry, anxiety, or nervousness. We actually could be excited. The blind spot, again, the blind spot is not that we care too much. The blind spot is that we mistake worrying about something for loving it. and then we further mistake worrying about it for doing something about it.

24:56 That's why we sometimes think that worry is useful, that we approach worry as if it actually accomplishes anything. We know that we realize this, right, that worry only feels productive because it keeps our minds busy. We're just rehearsing again and again. We're pre-hearsing the disaster again and again, and we think that we're actually doing something. but I've heard someone say it like this, worry is like a rocking chair. It doesn't go anywhere, but it gives you something to do.

25:25 And into this, here's a saint. His name's Saint Padre Pio. Into this, Padre Pio has this famous quote where he says, pray, hope, and don't worry. But the quote goes on. He says, pray, hope, and don't worry. He goes on to say, worry is useless. When we believe that worry is necessary or worry is useful, it's just not. In fact, there's this person named Baz Luhrmann. Baz Luhrmann once said, he said, don't worry or do, but realize that worrying is about as helpful as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. Like it just doesn't help. It's not useful at all. We sometimes think that thinking about a thing will give me more control, but realize at a certain point, I'm no longer solving my problem. I'm simply rehearsing my problem. So worry is not necessary. It's not useful and it doesn't actually keep us safe. if we sometimes look at worry as self-protection, that if I imagine the worst beforehand, then I won't be blindsided.

26:22 But do you realize that they came up with a study that found that 91.8, 91.2% of the things that we worry about never actually end up happening. So we think that this is some kind of self-protection, like that idea like, well, if I stop worrying, something bad will happen. That is not true. The lie is my worry prevents me from suffering, or my worry protects me from suffering. But the truth of the matter is, worry makes me suffer twice. Once in my imagination and then again if the thing actually happens. And if it's true that 91.2% of the things we worry about never actually end up happening, worry makes us suffer needlessly at least once. All of those things, just looking at worry as necessary or useful, as somehow keeping me safe, all of those are an attempt to control situations without actually doing anything. It's not a sin to feel anxious.

27:15 is what we do with it when it comes. Because if I get to the place where I've chosen, I've chosen to have this blind spot, I've chosen to have this blind spot of worry or anxiety in my life, that has become a sin against trust. There's a Protestant pastor who just passed away a couple years ago named Timothy Keller. At one point, Timothy Keller was talking about this, and he said about resentment and worry. He said, resentment is believing that God got it wrong, like the past, my story. Resentment, I resent that past, I resent that story. resentment is believing that God got it wrong. And then he went on to say, and worry is believing that God won't get it right. It's a sin against trusting in God's providence. Will he actually be there? So what's the remedy? What's the remedy to be able to have no anxiety at all, to still care, right, to still be concerned, but to have no anxiety at all?

28:12 I think it goes back to what St. Padre Pio said. Pray, hope, and don't worry. Pray. I think what Padre Pio is saying when he says pray, he says take action to move. We realize that action alleviates anxiety. To simply choose, to simply move, to simply do something. And if I can make a decision, make a decision. That's what we all are called to do. To just do the next right thing. And of course there will be anxious moments.

28:47 But Paul tells us what to do with that anxiety. He says, have no anxiety at all. but in all things, in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Basically, St. Paul is saying, okay, you have anxiety, you have worries, you have concerns, take them to God, especially, and you're like, yeah, but what's going to happen? What about the things I can't fix? Especially the things you can't fix. We take the things that we can't resolve, that we have no control over, we bring those to the Lord and say, okay, God, I'm going to entrust this to you, that's what our prayer can look like, especially the things we can't fix. There is a Christian writer named Max Lucado. Max Lucado, he gave a talk once about this, and I just, I was so moved. He said, how many of you, if you ever had an appliance, you have a, or even a car that's broken down. You have this appliance that you've tried to fix, you can't fix, you have a car you try to fix, you can't fix it. So you're going to take it to the expert. You're going to take it to like the dishwasher expert. You're going to take it to the car expert, whatever. How many of you, when bringing this thing that's broken, you can't fix to the expert, hang around and say, hey, if there's anything I can do to help, let me know. How many of you would give it to the person and then say, you know what, I'm just going to sleep right here. I'm not going to go home until you fixed it. And if I can be part of this in any way, shape, or form, I will be part of this. Like none of us do this. Why? Because we bring the thing we can't fix to the expert and then we let them have it. Our prayer can look exactly like that. What are the things that are keeping you up at night? What are the things that are, have captured your heart with worry or with anxiety? And you know this already. You know you can't fix them.

30:29 Why not leave them with the one who actually can fix them? when we bring them to God, they're no longer yours to carry. That's what it is to do what we can. That's prayer. And then St. Padre Pio says hope. We realize that hope is not wishful thinking.

30:52 When Paul was writing this letter to the Philippians, where was he? You probably know this. He was in prison. He was in a situation where he had no control over outcomes. He had no control over the verdict. He had no control of whether he'd get a fair trial. He had no control over Epaphroditus and whether he'd get better or not. He had no control over the future of the churches. He had no, he had no, virtually no control over the, or no influence over outcomes. But Paul has hope. Why? Paul has hope because he has, he knows he has access. He has access to the Father. He knows that no matter what happens tomorrow, God will be there. That's what hope is. hope is not this is going to turn out the way I want it. Hope is no matter what happens, I know that God will be there. And this is the last thing. When I think about that, when I think about what hope is, knowing that I don't know the outcome, I maybe have little control over the outcome, but I know God will be there. I'm reminded of a man named Father Walter Chizik.

31:54 I've talked about him before. Father Walter Chizik was an American priest who wanted to be a missionary to Russia. So basically he went to the front lines during World War II and in 1941 he was captured by the Russians as a Soviet spy, as a spy, a U.S. spy by the Soviets.

32:18 He was tortured for over a year. He was broke. He was broken. He was completely powerless. He had no control over his outcomes. He had no control over his life. And then he spent 23 years in Soviet prisons and gulags.

32:41 If there's anyone who would know what is to be concerned, anyone who knows what it would be like to just be worried about, I don't even know if I'm going to get any food. I don't know if they're going to kill me today. I don't know what's going to happen. It would be Father Walter Chizik and the people that he was in the gulags with. And yet in the midst of all of this, at one point, Father Chizik said this.

33:03 He said, there will be a tomorrow and we would have to live in it. And God would be there as well. If there's any line that sums up what Padre Pio said so clearly, pray hope and not worry. If there's any line that sums up what St. Paul said so clearly, but have no anxiety at all, it is this declaration of those two remedies for anxiety, prayer and hope. There would be a tomorrow and we would have to live in it. And God would be there as well. That's hope. Knowing that no matter what the outcomes, no matter what happens, God will be there. Worry comes and goes.

33:46 But we who know the love and power of God refuse to overestimate the danger and refuse to underestimate our ability to cope because we can do something. We can pray. We can trust in God. We can hope. And therefore, we do not have to worry. I want you to stand as we profess our faith.