The New Man Part 6
By Marc Eskander
Anxiety.
Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t a recent phenomenen. Very clearly, St Paul addressed anxiety in his Epistle to the Phillipians. Going back further, Solomon in the Proverbs discussed anxiety and worry. I dare say, our father Adam, anxiously walked out of the Garden of Eden after hearing the words, “cursed is the ground in your labors.” (Gen 3:17).
However, neither is anxiety an abnormal response. In fact, it’s crucial to our survival. Imagine yourself standing in a jungle, face to face with a lion who has just finished fasting for lent. On the menu? You. Your natural response should be, RUN. Reacting to stressors, and taking action is completely normal. It is critical to our survival.
So, where is the problem? When you’re sitting at home, and you perceive that uni assignment, task, meeting or phone call to be that lion about to eat you alive. Except you’re not in a jungle, and you’re not facing a lion.
While there is danger, it’s not nearly as bad as what we make it out to be. Anxiety is a distortion. It is distorting the facts of reality, making a mixtape of these distortions, then playing them on repeat. Over, and over, and over again.
This is good news! Why? It means something can be done about it. A physically unwell patient in a hospital is always joyful and hopeful to hear that their illness can be treated or cured, as opposed to being terminal. Similarly, we have the power to take a very active role in keeping ourselves mentally healthy. Just as a physically unwell Christian will combine both prayer and sacraments along with modern medicine, so too must anxiety be treated.
Often, especially as christians, we make the distinction with anxiety that it’s either a mental/physical problem, or a spiritual problem. There is no such distinction. Humans are not purely spiritual or physical beings. Anxiety, as a mental experience, has a clear physical state that can be measured, diagnosed, and described. However, as these physical signs accompany biological responses in our nervous system, as such they produce thoughts, affect emotions, and produce other physical and mental responses.
Our physical and mental experience of course cannot be separated from our spiritual one either. We cannot discount the importance of our relationship with Christ, the King of peace.
A contemporary elder of Mt Athos makes this observation:
The image which we can use to describe the relationship of soul and brain is the violin with the violinist. Just as even the best musician cannot make good music if the violin is broken or unstrung, in the same manner a man’s behavior will not be whole (see 2 Tim 3:17) if his brain presents a certain disturbance, in which case the soul cannot be expressed correctly. It is precisely this disturbance of the brain that certain medicines help correct and so aid the soul in expressing itself correctly.
Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos
I would like to offer some advice taken from St Paul’s epistle to the Phillipian, that we can use to help achieve this inner calm and stillness, and help combat anxiety.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
We hear this verse a lot, and sometimes we roll our eyes, “yes yes, prayer, but what else can I do.” St Paul is promising a lot, peace that surpasses all understanding, it means no one understands how or where this peace came from. No one can give you this same peace.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.
John 14:27
If we’re given this promise, we should take the commandments seriously. Keep in mind, St Paul wrote this verse from prison, not on holidays in Santorini, or at his holiday house in the countryside. Prison, for the crime of being Christian.
So what is St Paul commanding us?
Firstly, to be anxious for nothing. Easier said than we’d done. Don’t be anxious about that friend that ignored you, that job you lost, the exam you have in a week that you haven’t studied for, the bills that are piling up. Nothing. Does that mean it all magically goes away? Unfortunately not. That friend may very well be upset at you, you still don’t have a job, you might fail that exam, you still don’t have money for those bills. But let’s go back to the promise, we’re not always promised solutions, we’re promised peace. The peace of God. However, in gaining that peace, I now have greater strength, focus and grace to pursue solutions and to open my eyes to a way out that God is providing. I can confidently learn a new skill and find a job, I lovingly confront my friend and resolve the conflict, I get a wake up call and learn new ways of utilising my time to study, I learn to be generous with my money and not be concerned with how God will look after me.
The reason that the Bible and the Church fathers are so adamant on the path of suffering being the path to salvation is this; in suffering we partake in the same path that Christ took. More than anything, this is our calling, to share with our Creator, our God, our Bridegroom; to share in His suffering is to share in the Resurrection after the crucifixion, to share in the Kingdom of Heaven. The same Kingdom of Heaven that is within us.
The second commandment, in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
St Paul here gives us the other extreme. On one hand, “Be anxious for nothing”, on the other hand, “but in everything”. Whatever we may have been anxious about, past, present or future, he’s saying, turn it into a prayer. We crucify the anxiety, and raise it in prayer. If anxious and worrisome thoughts consume my mind all day, imagine turning each thought into a prayer. There is now a very real chance of attempting to “pray unceasingly.” Orthodoxy continuously teaches us this method of spiritual growth and progress. God glorifies our weaknesses for His glory, turning anxiety into peace, pain into healing, death into life. One of the most powerful tools for this is the Jesus Prayer. Fr Seraphim Rose in the book, “His Life and Works” says,
“Pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world. I am at this moment in some pain, and I call on the name of Jesus, in Whom alone we may transcend this world, may be with me during it, and His will be done in me.”
Finally, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We are promised this peace, which is beyond comprehension, and we are promised protection by this peace. Peace guards our hearts and minds from the worries and fears of this world. It shields us from those destructive and intrusive thoughts that shatter our inner peace and gnaw away at our connection with Christ.
This peace also doesn’t make sense. We don’t understand how it works, we don’t understand why it gives us so much strength and grace. In guarding our hearts, we are shielded from attaching our hearts to any other loves that are not Christ. Our emotions, feelings and desires are redirected towards all that is holy and pure. In protecting our minds, our thoughts, conscious and unconscious are transformed and instead of leading us away from our Creator, they lead us to Him.