Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Do not be afraid.” Mt. 10:32

“Do not be afraid,” Jesus tells us.

And yet, we are. We’re very afraid.

At least this is what a recent e-New York Times article tells us.

Entitled “Prozac Nation Is Now the United States of Xanax,” the article reports that “Anxiety (fear) has become our everyday argot, our thrumming lifeblood: not just on Twitter, but also in blogger diaries, celebrity confessionals, a hit Broadway show, a magazine start-up, a buzzed about television series, and, defying our abbreviated attention spans, even books.”

This reference to “books” is meant to highlight all the recently published books, including “On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety” and “Monkey Mind.”

The Times then suggests that, as a nation, we have entered a “new Age of Anxiety. Monitoring our heart rates, swiping ceaselessly at our iPhones, filling meditation studios in an effort to calm our racing thoughts.”

Or, the author writes, “Consider the fidget spinner: endlessly whirring between the fingertips … annoying teachers, baffling parents.” A couple of youngster’s in my family recently introduced me to these gadgets. Truly mystifying!

Even more frightening is the data from the National Institute of Mental Health that reports some 38 percent of young teenage girls and 26 percent of boys, have an anxiety disorder. On college campuses, anxiety is running well ahead of depression as the most common mental health concern.

Meanwhile, according to Google Trends, the number of web searches involving the term “anxiety” has nearly doubled over the last five years.

One observer who hosts a podcast called “The United States of Anxiety” insists this upsurge of anxiety is very understandable. After all, he writes, “We’ve been at war since 2003. We’ve seen two recessions. Digital life alone has seen a massive change. Work life has changed. Everything we consider to be normal has changed. And nobody seems to trust the people in charge to tell them where they fit into the future.”

Saddest about all this – and one of the great tragedies of our time – has been our response to this tsunami of anxiety:

Opiates.

In 2015, “the opioid epidemic killed more than 33,000 Americans and is now a national affliction.” Opiate addiction is being called “America’s 50 state epidemic.”

Public health officials have described this epidemic as being “the worst drug crisis in American history. Deaths from heroin alone have surpassed gun homicides.” It has become a drug that can kill in doses smaller than a snowflake.

And, there’s no sign of it letting up.

In today’s gospel, amid this national calamity, we hear the refreshing voice of Jesus urging us, almost begging us to “not be afraid.” Jesus is not naïve about the dangers that life can present, about the temptations to hide away in the world of drugs, about the pervasive atmosphere of anxiety in people’s lives.

In the face of all the wildly rapid changes in our daily lives, all the worries about our jobs and our children and our politics and our health – in the midst of all this and more, Jesus provides a calming reassurance:

“Do not be afraid … You are worth more than many sparrows,” Jesus tells us. “Even all the hairs of your head are counted.”

Because all that we fear, Jesus tells us, “cannot kill the soul.”

Jesus’ gospel message today is that we are loved; we are treasured; we are infinitely valued; we are more precious than we can ever know.

And then Jesus leads us a step further:

Don’t just keep this conviction to yourself. Shout it from the rooftops. Speak “in the light.”

Fear – anxiety – is taking over our lives. Fear is causing us to make terribly damaging and destructive choices. Fear is becoming so rampant that it is becoming the hallmark of our time.

The antidote to fear, to all this anxiety is not heroin. It is not some other opiate or equally dangerous and life-threatening drug.

The antidote to fear is trust.

Trust that Jesus means what he says when he tells us, when he teaches us that:

“You are my friends. Your name is written on the palm of my hand. You will never be forgotten. Don’t be intimidated by the bullies of this world. I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. Place your trust in me.”

Do not be afraid.

Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.

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6/22/17