Newspaper Page Text
December 10,1981
PAGE 5
When Pressure Gets To You
TODAY’S PRESSURES can provoke considerable anxiety
in us over all the decisions that have to be made. We worry
about making wrong choices that may eventually prove
harmful to ourselves or to those we love. We feel pulled in
every direction by persons and problems vying for our
attention. (NC Sketch by Cork)
Why Are The Skies So
BY NEIL PARENT
My wife and I have a friend - a widowed
mother of two teen-agers ~ who moved several
years ago from a large urban area to a rural
setting in New England. As she explained
then, she was tired of the fast pace and the
pressures of urban living.
She wanted a style of life that would allow
her and her children to spend more time
together and to taste some of the simple
pleasures of life, like a walk in the woods.
She also felt that urban living posed
problems for the Christian upbringing of her
children. She wanted them to grow up in an
environment that was less materialistic,
competitive and violence-prone.
Many of us, I suspect, can identify with my
friend’s motives. Perhaps, at times we too
have thought about leaving our present
harried life behind and starting afresh
somewhere else - where things are simpler,
quieter.
Modern life is filled with pressures that can
cause anxiety and threaten happiness.
1. The amount and variety of options open
to us. Each day we are faced with a host of
decisions that can have major consequences
for us and for our children.
For example, it used to be that after
finishing school, one took the first available
job. Today, one can choose from a multitude
of career possibilities - each having radically
different implications for the future.
2. The pace of modern life. The rate at
which technological and scientific
developments occur is steadily rising. We
hardly have time to catch our breath from one
development when another is upon us.
For instance, few parents feel comfortable
helping their children with modern math. Yet,
the fast-growing use of computers in
education is bound to expand and will pose
even more questions for parents.
3. The growing complexity of society with
its various groups and activities. Each activity
that a person is involved in demands a
commitment of time and energy. The amount
of telephoning, car pooling and meetings that
many parents must undergo to provide for
their children’s educational, recreational and
social activities is overwhelming.
Mark 2:18-23
BY FATHER JOHN CASTELOT
One of the stories of conflict in the second
chapter of Mark begins with a controversy
about fasting.
Mark says some people came to Jesus and
asked why his disciples did not fast. John the
Baptizer’s disciples fasted and so did the
Pharisees, the people noted.
This is the first of many indications that
John the Baptizer had a recognizable group of
devoted followers.
In fact, John’s followers remained a
recognizable group for a long time after he
was executed; they later came into conflict
with the followers of Jesus. John’s followers
practiced a rather rigorous asceticism.
Devout Pharisees fasted several times a
week. But the references to them in verses 18
and 19 seem to have been added to the
original story to bring it into line with the
whole series of incidents involving Jesus and
the religious establishment.
At any rate, some people were scandalized.
To their way of thinking, the conduct of John
and his followers at least was consistent with
their preaching. But if Jesus was God’s agent,
why didn’t he and his disciples perform the
expected acts of religious observance?
Jesus answers with the help of a common
illustration - the wedding feast that usually
lasted a full week. Jesus is alluded to as the
groom at the feast.
The feast was a time of great joy. Fasting
would be completely out of place.
But there is more to Jesus’ answer than
that. His answer points to his identity.
The wedding feast was a familiar image for
the reign of God. It would suggest to those
with ears to hear that the reign had dawned
with Jesus.
Even more, the allusion to himself as the
groom would have recalled the Old Testament
Today’s pressures can provoke
considerable anxiety. People grow anxious
because of all the decisions that have to be
made. They worry about making wrong
choices that may eventually prove harmful to
themselves or to those they love.
Have you ever gotten to the point where
you felt pulled in every direction by persons
and problems vying for your attention?
Like most other things in life, pressures can
be harmful when in too great a quantity ; but
in moderate amounts, they might be
beneficial. Pressures can be catalysts for
decision and action. Pressures also can be a
source of personal testing and growth.
In “The Road Less Travelled,” psychiatrist
M. Scott Peck writes: “Problems call forth our
courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create
our courage and our wisdom. It is only
because of our problems that we grow
mentally and spiritually.”
For the Christian, the pressures of life can
be a source of spiritual growth. Facing up to
decisions or other pressures can be a way of
exercising faith.
Faith is lived, celebrated and, in effect,
prayed, each time a decision is made in light of
it.
But too many decisions can overload us
and push us to the point of anxiety. Indeed,
we may even create additional pressures for
ourselves by worrying whether or not we have
acted in a Christian way.
Here, I think, is where Jesus’ instructions
not to worry are pertinent. He asks us not to
be so absorbed in the pressures of daily living
that we neglect what is really important -
namely, our relationship with God.
We grow anxious when faced with
pressures and decisions because we begin to
feel as though success in life depends so much
on us -- on making all the right choices. We feel
somehow that we must have complete control
of life if everything is to work out.
But Christian faith tells us that life is not
fully ours to control in the first place. Our life
is God’s gift. We are always and everywhere
touched by his boundless love for us.
Thus, Christians might view life’s pressures
as opportunities for growth rather than as
problems to be mastered for success.
God asks that we do what we can in life and
rely upon him for the rest.
passages in which Yahweh (God) himself was
portrayed as the groom who wanted to be
reunited with his faithless bride, Israel.
Certainly, Mark’s Christian readers would
have understood the words that way.
However, in verse 20, the analogy is
broken.
Jesus and his apostles might not have
fasted, but the early Christians did. Why?
Mark seems to tell us something about that
now.
When a wedding feast was finished, the
groom was not “taken away” from the guests.
But the early Christians felt as though that
had happened. For them, the real wedding
feast would take place at the time of the
second coming of Jesus. In the meantime,
they fasted in anticipation of his return.
For the reader, this part of the account
brings the cross into focus once more - a
recurrent theme for Mark.
Finally, two little parables are told - one
about a patch on an old cloak, the other about
new wine in old wineskins. The second is very
familiar:
“No man pours new wine into old
wineskins. If he does so, the wine will burst
the skins and both wine and skins will be lost.
No, new wine is poured into new skins.”
The two parables were added to bring out
the general principle implicit in the
controversy about fasting.
The two parables do not deny the
continuity of the new order of things with the
old. Concern is expressed for the old cloak
and the old wineskins.
But the parables indicate that a new spirit
of religion was brought by Jesus. It calls not
just for a “patch-up” job, but complete
renovation.
So powerful is this spirit that the old forms
cannot contain it. New wine must be poured
into new skins.
BY KATHARINE BIRD
Gradually she began to lose her usual zest
for life. “There isn’t enough salt and pepper in
my life,” she complained.
Her children, teen-agers now, only paid
attention to her when she demanded it. Their
encounters didn’t seem as pleasant as when
the children were younger.
Now 39 years old, she recently had moved
to a new city when her husband was
transferred. He immediately immersed
himself in interesting work with congenial
associates. For her, however, the move was a
major disruption. She felt uprooted and a
little resentful at being forced to find new
friends - again.
She registered at the local parish. But, here
too, she was vaguely disappointed. She
continued her usual religious practices, but
only out of a sense of duty. She felt God was
far away and not very interested in her.
After a while, her husband noticed she was
putting on weight and had given up gardening,
something she had loved in their former
home. He also noticed she was reacting
strongly to problems she formerly had
handled with ease.
On one occasion, when he turned to her for
sympathy after an especially upsetting day at
work, she responded by scolding him - for
leaving his coffee cup in the sink unrinsed. He
was stunned.
On another occasion, while upbraiding
their son for a trivial offense, she launched
BY LAWRENCE CUNNINGHAM
While still a child, St. Teresa of Avila and a
brother decided to run away from home.
Spurred on by the lives of the saints read to
them by their mother, the youngsters were
determined to run away in order to seek
martyrdom at the hands of the Moors in
North Africa. But, unhappily for their plans,
as they were hurrying through the streets of
Avila on their way out of the city, they were
caught and unceremoniously returned home
by an uncle.
That story gives an early indication of the
future reformer’s determination to search out
the path to God. Teresa was born in 1515,
only 13 years after Columbus sailed for the
Americas under the flag of her native Spain
and six years before Martin Luther made his
final break with the papacy.
Teresa’s life seems to reflect the energy and
daring of the 16th century, a time of vast new
discoveries and tumultuous change. Both the
exploration of the New World and the
Protestant Reformation had a significant
impact on her.
Teresa entered the convent in Avila when
she was 21 years old. Throughout her life she
was plagued by ill health, which at one point
forced her to leave the convent for two years
to recuperate at the home of a sibling.
In her writings, Teresa refers to her chronic
ill health as a “cross,” and confesses how
discouraged she became at times. Teresa also
frequently prayed for help in carrying on with
her work and numerous travels despite her
erratic health.
For many years Teresa struggled to
become more adept at prayer. She described
prayer as a “conversation between friends.”
After 20 years in the convent, she experienced
what she calls a “second conversion” which
led her to seek a more perfect life of prayer
and contemplation. Thereafter, her rapid
advance in the spiritual life as well as her
forceful personality made her a natural
reformer of religious life.
Beginning in 1562, she worked untiringly
against strenuous objections to found
reformed Carmelite convents all over Spain.
By the time of her death in 1582, Teresa had
founded more than 16 convents where
Carmelite sisters pursued lives of mystical
prayer in a setting of simplicity and poverty.
Contemporary enclosed Carmelite
monasteries of women are direct spiritual
into a long litany of his wrongdoings, reaching
way back into his early childhood. This too
was contrary to her usual practice.
According to Father Douglas Morrison,
director of the Pastoral Center at The Catholic
University of America, this woman could be
responding to pressure during a transition
time in her life.
Father Morrison explained that pressure
surrounds people throughout their lives.
- Sometimes pressure is related to the
point one is at in life, marking the transition
from one age to another.
- Other times, pressure is caused by
routine transitions from one school to
another, from school to work, from one state
of life to another.
In addition, Father Morrison thinks people
experience a more general kind of pressure
from society. In some countries, the pressure
is to join in a competitive and
achievement-oriented way of life.
This overriding stress affects people from
childhood on, beginning at home and spilling
over in school and at work, he added.
People can’t avoid all pressure, and the
counselor maintains it can have a positive side.
Pressure, he said firmly, is “essential for
growth. We need the force of pressure to drag
us up from point A to point B.”
For instance, Father Morrison continued,
the woman mentioned earlier might muddle
on for a time, vaguely dissatisfied with herself
descendents of the first reformed convents
founded by Teresa.
Historians and writers have been intrigued
by the pithy and forthright character of
Teresa. Despite the seriousness of her life and
the intensity of her work as a reformer, Teresa
was a humorous, down-to-earth woman.
Once, when bucked from a mule she was
riding, Teresa raised her eyes to heaven and
cried out, “Lord, if this is how you treat your
servants, it is no wonder you have so few of
them!”
She once wrote about self-styled saints
who frightened her “more than all of the
Gray?
and feeling that “no one really appreciates
her, not even God.”
Then, something quite specific will
happen. One day, the woman will be shocked
by something - the illness or death of a parent
or close friend. This will shake her into the
recognition that “her present is not very
satisfying - and the future looks worse,”
Father Morrison remarked.
Confronted by that knowledge, the
woman will seek to change her life somehow
by reaching out for help to others.
At this point, according to Father
Morrison, it is crucial for people to step back
to gain perspective on what is happening. In
the normal course of events, he asserted,
people do this by talking over how they are
feeling with other persons - with their spouse,
a neighbor, a relative.
Therefore, individuals need to be able to
find some kind of support system. Christians,
Father Morrison observed, should have the
kind of faith in others that makes this
possible.
As Christians, we “profess to be rooted in
God and in a community of frail people who
pledge their support to each other,” he added.
The counselor noted that parishes have had a
lot of success in putting together people who
are going through similar crises.
In a group where members “have as much
likeness as possible, trust can be built” among
people more easily, Father Morrison
concluded.
sinners I have ever met.”
Despite a lack of formal education, Teresa
was an energetic and original writer. In
addition to her autobiography, she wrote such
masterpieces as “The Way of Perfection” in
1565 and “The Interior Castle” in 1577.
Next year the 400th anniversary of Teresa
of Avila’s death will be celebrated. She is a
woman whose intense interior life and whose
writings led Pope Paul VI to name her a
“doctor of the church.”
This elite list contains only two women -
Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Sienna.
Discussion Points And Questions
1. Think about a time in your recent past when you felt very pressured.
What caused it? What did you do to handle the pressure?
2. Neil Parent says one pressure in modern life is the multitude of
choices open to us. What are some of those choices?
3. Why does Parent think pressure can lead to anxiety? Do you agree?
4. Having read Lawrence Cunningham’s article, do you see any
resemblance between the times St. Teresa of Avila lived in and our day?
5. According to Cunningham, how did St. Teresa refer to prayer?
6. Why didn’t Jesus and his immediate disciples fast, according to
Father John Castelot?
St. Teresa of Avila
KNOW
YOUR FAITH
(All Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1981 By N.C. News Service)
s —. /
Feast While
Bridegroom Is Here
A Woman To Remember