Why You Should Not Be Afraid

Silence in the face of evil allows evil to grow. Evil is a lie— the antidote is truth. Be not afraid to speak the truth.

“Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power, Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil” -Ephesians 6:10-11

Pope John Paul II stood on the balcony of St. Peter’s, he said, “Be not afraid,” and in closing prayed, “Let the Spirit descend. Let the Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land.” While this prayer and exhortation were said to the world, the Polish people, especially, knew he was addressing them. Lech Walesa said that these words energized the Solidarity movement in Poland. At the same time, Yuri Andropov, then head of the KGB, commenced a study of the implications of a Polish pope, concluding that this papacy would destabilize Poland and undermine Soviet authority in the communist block.

That is precisely what happened. Despite attempts by the Soviets to squelch the Pope and false media reports, the Pope drew massive crowds where ever he went. “You are not who they say you are, so let me remind you who you are.” He emphasized the need for spiritual and cultural renewal, preserving Poland’s strong faith, and the transforming power of Christ’s love. In response, the people chanted,

“We want God, we want God, we want God in the family, we want God in the schools, we want God in books.” In 1980, the government recognized Solidarity as the first independent trade union in the communist bloc.

President Reagan said to a friend, “I have had a feeling, particularly in the Pope’s visit to Poland, that religion may turn out to be the Soviets’ Achilles’ heel.” Faith in Christ is, in fact, the Achilles heel of all evil. Satan shutters even at hearing the word Jesus. A proclamation of the faith, however, is not enough. Real faith is needed that engages the believer to stand up to the devil and to proclaim the truth, proclaim the Gospel. It is a difficult battle, but as Christians, we already know who wins the war, it is not Satan. We must reclaim the virtue of courage and develop the fortitude to fight and “Be Not Afraid.”

“Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe,” the Pope said in his homily, at Mass, this touched off applause and chants from the worshipers shouting —”We Want God.”

Hundreds of thousands crowd into Warsaw’s Victory Square for the Pope’s open-air Mass.

There is little doubt that today we are living in a world where many have become afraid, afraid to be a witness to Christ. Inch by inch, Western civilization’s values are being torn down by a minority who have beaten the majority into submission too afraid to speak the truth. Even many of our Catholic schools have become Catholic in name only and surrendered to the minority. Regretfully, many people have become afraid. We fear to lose a friend or a job, or not being liked. Speaking the truth will undoubtedly cost you some friendships, but it will gain new ones, closer ones, because they are based on truth and respect. There is a price to pay for speaking out, and there is also a price for lying or remaining silent.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Oxford in 1941. At the time, Britain badly needed the inspiration to fight on in a war for freedom. Borrowing from Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary, Franklin said in his speech at Oxford:

“We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

As George Weigel observed in his second biography of the pontiff, “The End and the Beginning,” Pope John Paul “did not live without fear; still, less did he deny fear. Rather, he lived beyond fear, and his courage was an expression … of his faith.” In his book titled “Men of a Brave Heart: The Virtue of Courage in the Priestly Life, Archbishop Gomez describes the influence Pope John Paul II had on his life. He reminds us that the central underlying theme of Pope John Paul II’s entire pontificate was one of fearlessness and courage.

Nine Days That Changed The World is a powerful documentary that chronicles the courageous Popes visit to Poland as he stood up to the evil communist regime.

Why COVID-19 Does Not Scare Me

No, I don’t want to contract the Corona Virus, but I also don’t want to live in fear. I hope not to get involved in a car accident either, but I continue to drive on the freeway every day. The automobile and driving once considered a major breakthrough for the everyday convenience of humankind, is now a significant cause of death. Most of us take for granted that driving fatalities are a fact of life. An estimated 1.35 million people die in road accidents worldwide every year — 3,700 deaths a day. And millions of those who survive are left with permanent injuries. Most people have decided to measure the convenience against the risk and continue driving. An estimated 100 people die in car accidents every day just in the United States.

Make no mistake; I do not want to die, life is a gift, so I try to balance caring for myself and others along with living. I hope to live many more years, but I recognize that much of life is simply beyond my control as God is demonstrating with this terrible new virus, and as we see every day.

—In 2017, a total of 2,813,503 deaths were reported

in the United States

Almost 40,000 people died from falling in the United States, and another 60,000 plus died from accidental poisoning. Every day we are bombarded with information telling us, “don’t eat this —eat that”, “do this — do that”. The fact is we are all going to die, and we don’t know when or how.

There’s a popular notion that believes that if we have strong faith, we should not suffer any undue fear in the face of death, but rather face it with calm, peace and even gratitude because we have nothing to fear from God or the afterlife. Christ has overcome death. Death sends us to heaven. So why be afraid?

I think living life in fear is worse than death. The potential consequences of fear on overall, physical, emotional, environmental, and spiritual health are well known. According to the American Journal of Managed Care, the potential effects of chronic fear include:

Immune system dysfunction
Endocrine system dysfunction
Autonomic nervous system alterations
Sleep/wake cycle disruption
Eating disorders
Alterations in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis

The potential consequences of chronic fear of spiritual health:

Bitterness/fear toward God or others
Confusion/disgust with God or religion
Loss of trust in God and/or clergy
Waiting for God to fix it
Despair related to the perceived loss of spirituality

With that said, God will do what he wants. I don’t pray for COVID 19. I do, however, pray for the people who live with the fear of what it might do and I pray that it might bring them closer to God. For me, I don’t want to stay in my home for the rest of my life, not hug or touch someone because I might die. For me, the cost is simply too much. I do not wish to live with that kind of fear. Some may find me selfish but I just want to live.

I understand this a very different virus and it is extremely potent. I am neither a doctor nor a scientist. But I am a Psychologist that believes we must count the other costs. There is more to life than just not getting sick and not dying. People have lost their jobs and suicide has skyrocketed. We must consider these losses when deciding on how to move forward.

July 30 2020 update

CDC Director Compares Rate of Suicides to COVID-19 Deaths

Source: (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Center for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield said in a Buck Institute webinar that suicides and drug overdoses have surpassed the death rate for COVID-19 among high school students. Redfield argued that lockdowns and lack of public schooling constituted a disproportionally negative impact on young peoples’ mental health.

Some Background

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2009, a novel H1N1 influenza (flu) virus emerged to cause the first flu pandemic in 40 years. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic was estimated to be associated with 151,700 to 575,400 deaths worldwide during the first year it circulated. Although the CDC and its many partners have made great strides in the fields of influenza surveillance, prevention, and treatment since 2009, the H1N1 virus has continued to circulate seasonally to this day.

The (H1N1)pdm09 virus was very different from H1N1 viruses that were circulating at the time of the pandemic. Few young people had any existing immunity (as detected by antibody response) to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus, but nearly one-third of people over 60 years old had antibodies against this virus, likely from exposure to an older H1N1 virus earlier in their lives. Since the (H1N1)pdm09 virus was very different from circulating H1N1 viruses, vaccination with seasonal flu vaccines offered little cross-protection against (H1N1)pdm09 virus infection. While a monovalent (H1N1)pdm09 vaccine was produced, it was not available in large quantities until late November—after the peak of illness during the second wave had come and gone in the United States. From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there were 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (range: 195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus. Read more from the CDC

Why Some People Are So Fearful

Fear is the emotion we need to experience when we are confronted with a future evil that can be avoided only with some difficulty. Fear and the consuming nature of anxiety, have the ability to steal everything from us in a way that no other mental tribulation is quite capable. Through a process called potentiation, your fear response is amplified if you are already in a state of fear. When you are primed for fear, you can imagine things as much worse than they really are. Fear can be as much an ally, as it can be an enemy.

Photo by Fernando on Unsplash

For people who are trying to live a life pleasing to God, the good spirit strengthens, encourages, consoles, removes obstacles, and gives peace. The evil spirit tries to derail them by stirring up anxiety, false sadness, needless confusion, frustration, fear, and other obstacles.

For many, fear causes retreat. It is what prevents many people from reaching their goals and living a happy life. It can literally freeze them. Without God, we turn inward to ourselves.

One of the great gifts of being a believing Catholic is a sense of trust in God’s providence. It is truly a case of lex orandi, lex credendi – what we pray is what we believe. Near the end of the Lord’s Prayer at every Mass, we pause as the priest prays the Embolism prayer.

Photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant us peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus spent a lot of time telling us not to be so worried or anxious. Worrying is natural, and some amount is good, it helps us think about responses to potential dangers, but excessive worry may show a lack of trust and faith in God. Many things are simply out of our control.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:25-27

As did St. Peter: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

And St. Paul: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:7:

The works of God are all of them good;he supplies for every need in its own time. There is no cause then to say: “This is not as good as that”; for each shows its worth at the proper time. So now with full heart and voice proclaim .” Sirach 39: 33-35