S1 E1: The Advent Challenge - Banishing Anxiety and Negativity

Transcript

Carol Vassar:
In our homes, schools, workplaces, and especially online, we run up against negativities and anxieties. Yet during his homily for the First Sunday of Advent - Dec. 1st, 2024, - Father Mark lays down an admittedly tricky challenge for himself and us that might make our daily encounters a bit easier and provide rest for our souls - if we can stick to it. 

First, here’s our Gospel reading for this week. It’s from Luke, Chapter 21, verses 21-25 and 34-36.

Jesus said to his disciples: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The Gospel of the Lord

“The Advent Challenge: Banishing Anxiety and Negativity,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

Father Mark Suslenko:

What are some of your anxieties of daily life? Anxieties of daily life? Those are those things that are with us when we go to bed and stay with us through the night, often keeping us up, and they're also there before we even put our feet to the ground in the morning. The anxieties of daily life: they take different forms for every one of us because we all have our own burdens and challenges to carry. For some, it may be dealing with a disabled child. Others may be dealing with a spouse who needs an extraordinary amount of care, whose quality of life seems to be diminishing every day. Some of you may be dealing with the recovering of a surgery and frustrated with how slow progress seems to be going. Others may be concerned about getting older and how life will play out. There are others who have been given a very tough diagnosis of illness that has the power to change the course of their lives. Others are struggling with marriages who cannot seem to come together and seem to work. Others are worried about their kids because they're going through a struggle. You may be have a sibling who may be going through something challenging and difficult, and you're at a loss sometimes for how to deal with that and offer a hand of compassion and care. You may be worried about your job and being torn apart by demands, unable to be with your family as much as you may like. You may be a younger adult, wondering about how the future is gonna play out, concerned about being successful, finding a good job, providing for your needs, or a young child who really wants to just be liked by their classmates and falling short of reaching that goal.  

The anxieties of daily life.  

You know, as we look at the baggage we carry, some of those anxieties can be fixed, and they're within our control. And when we can gain control over them and heal them or have others help us heal them, we can put them aside. They drift away. They were important and of concern one day, but then we were able to release them, and they flew away like a dove.  

Some of those other anxieties of daily life, however, defy our control. As much as we want to move them and change them, no matter how hard we try, they remain there, and it almost appears as if we are stuck, with progress minimal, slow, or even dim.  Those anxieties of daily life, those ones that defy our control, are the ones that can bring us to a place of darkness and negativity and truly change us.  It is those kinds of anxieties of daily life that can take our focus off of the big picture and cause our focus to remain very narrow and downward. It is those anxieties of daily life that really can cause us to become bitter.  

And then, to boot, we live in a world where negativity abounds on every corner.  All we have to do is turn on our computer to see who is saying what about whom and another conflict, another part of the world, another struggle that's not resolved, someone who has this opinion about that and that opinion about this, and one doesn't like the other, and the other is arguing against it, and all of this negativity flows into our space.  It's in our schools when we go to class every day. It's in our workplaces when we go to work, and we bring it home. It's so easy to fall a victim to negativity because it's everywhere, and if we're facing a challenge of everyday life that we can't move or work beyond, it’s even harder to get out from under that rock of negativity.   

And then Advent comes, and Advent reminds us to change our focus.  That the hope of salvation has dawned upon the world, and Christ is going to come again at some point in time.  The salvation has dawned upon the world, and there is hope. But, yet, when we're immersed in negativity, it's so hard to keep vigilant because that negativity makes us tired. It exhausts us. We become literally so frustrated and so tired that we don't have much energy anymore to deal with much.  And when we're tired psychologically, we're tired physically. When we're tired physically, we get tired spiritually, and our hearts truly can become drowsy and lethargic. And so you could have a heart that was engaged and creative and loving and caring, and positive and outgoing, slowly becoming withdrawn and isolated and weak, and drowsy and lethargic. And a heart that has become lethargic can easily then become apathetic, and a heart that becomes apathetic can easily become a heart that is hardened. And if you have encountered somebody with a hardened heart who doesn't seem to have the capacity to care anymore, behind that hardened heart is usually a story of rejection, a story of failure, a story of frustration, and the list goes on.  

And so Advent becomes this very brief opportunity for us to change our focus because our preoccupation with the daily concerns of life and our immersion in negativity, which seems to abound, keeps our glance focused downward. And Advent reminds us to look up and out, remember who God is, remember who you are, and remember what life is all about and who wins in the end.  Refresh yourself in the season of hope, but yet it's four short weeks.  But, in reality, Advent really becomes the blueprint for our spirituality in general. Advent is really the way we ought to live our life every day, because when we change our focus and we look up and out and remind ourselves who God is, who we are, and what life is all about, it gives us the ability to become vigilant, alert, refreshed, and ready. And being attentive and ready, we can then encounter the moments of the day. But if we're weighed down and preoccupied, we miss so many of God's blessings.  

Here's an interesting challenge that we can take upon ourselves for these four brief weeks of Advent. And it is a challenge. And I admit before you, I'm going to have a tough time doing it myself, but try, I will. And then we have to help each other do this as well, those especially closest to you.  And it's this: for the next brief four weeks, try to rid yourself of as much negativity as possible. Try to rid yourself of as much negativity as possible. That might mean unplugging from the Internet and stop watching all of that stuff and the drama that portrays itself therein. It might mean removing yourself from negative conversations in school or in work. It might mean adjusting things at home so that negativity stays at the door and a more positive environment can be lived within,  and to create some space to be alone and to ponder that bigger picture of life and change our focus, and realize that God calls us to a life of peace and joy, a life that often gets taken from us when we fall into the trap of our secular life and world. And if we can do this even just a little bit, we're gonna come out on the other end with a greater faith, a more enduring hope, and a more perfect love, so that whatever life brings us, we will be able to meet that challenge whenever and however it comes; to reduce the amount of negativity, to increase the amount of peace and joy,  this will make ourselves very much a part of where God wants us to be in this life and bring us closer to being ready for the day he comes again.

Carol Vassar:

Father Mark Suslenko is the pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. If you like what you've heard today, please subscribe to Living in Faith, Hope, and Love on your favorite podcast app and take a moment to leave a review.

SS. Isidore and Maria is an active parish community, so whether you’re a long-time parishioner or are just getting to know us through this podcast, we welcome you to join us at Masses or any of our other community events and services. Visit our parish website - isidoreandmaria.org - for a full schedule of Masses, services and other happenings. That's isidoreandmaria.org. We're also active on Facebook and Instagram.

On behalf of Father Mark, I'm Carol Vassar, and we thank you for listening to this episode of Living in Faith, Hope, and Love.