Faith & Wellbeing
WELLBEING
Melbourne, what is life telling you at the moment?
I would love to be able to send this question out to everyone in Victoria. We have really been through a lot.
We just became the longest locked down state in the world. We are heading into another surge in cases. Our neighbour state NSW is looking to open up to more freedoms. Our city has been engulfed in protests (at sacred sites like our war memorial), with violence from protestors and police. We have a Premier who seems to struggle a lot in leading and facing lots of criticism. On top of that we had the largest earth quake ever recorded in Victoria.
That is a lot!!
But what is it telling us?
I think there is a destructive spirit in our state, or another way of saying it: a bad vibe or negative energy. A lot of negative emotion.
At school I have had the chance to supervise some students on a Thursday and Friday and I noticed some students go through all different kinds of emotions. From Acceptance for the pandemic, to anger, to fear, grief, and even to apathy.
Apathy is certainly not a good place to be. It is a place of “I don’t care anymore” or I feel helpless and hopeless.
When we face life changing events, like a world pandemic, and life is thrown upside down, there is going to be emotional upheavals. So… what can we do?
I like the timeless wisdom of the Serenity Prayer:
God, Grant me the:
Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the
Courage to change the things I can, and the
Wisdom to know the difference.
What this prayer says to me is that we want to go through difficult times but not get stuck in difficulty.
We get stuck in difficult times when we blame others for our loss or upset, or we deny something we need to face and change.
One of the saddest observations in marriages is that 90% of them break up as a result of the death of a child. This is because there is such a great loss and then a great projection of blame on to the other partner, the doctors, the self and even God.
Victoria has gone through very difficult times and continuing. Therefore we have to be careful we don’t project our loss and blame on to others. Lets rather accept the loss.
The negative resistance to what can’t be changed is placed on others and self and God. But when all the negative emotions have been worked through and the reality is accepted in all its rawness, relief finally comes in acceptance. One of the signs of acceptance is serenity.
It takes a lot of strength or courage to face things we need to face. Take for example, the loss of a pet. Perhaps you have a pet that is getting older and you have started to have uncomfortable feelings of the prospect of his death. But you keep putting it out of your mind - denial. But by catching yourself doing this you can notice that these uncomfortable feelings are warning signs, preparing you.
So you could ask yourself:
“What is this pet giving to me in my life?, what purpose does this relationship serve?”
You might say: love, companionship, devotion, fun, exercise, distraction.
Then ask:
“Will losing the pet leave these personal emotional needs unfulfilled?”
By doing this we face the fear of loss and let it go, so that we don’t need to resort to denial. Then the feelings of fear don’t need to keep pushing and knocking at the door of denial, we accept the reality of what we can not change. Perhaps then you can make the most of the time left with the beloved pet.
Do you see how an event can teach us so much. So what are the events in Melbourne tell you?
What could you do to make the most of the gift of your life as we return to normal?
There is an event that happened in this Sunday’s Gospel, the rich young man. He did everything well and asked the Lord what more could be done. Jesus gazed at him and could see in him perhaps the 13th disciple. So he said “go sell everything and follow me”. But he was sad at this, because he had so much wealth, or perhaps the wealth had him.
Perhaps if he asked himself:
“What purpose does my wealth serve me?”
He might say: comfort, status, power, freedom…. All the things that Victoria has lost over the last 18 months.
Then he might ask:
“Will losing my wealth mean I will no longer have comfort, status, power, freedom?”
As Christians we know the answer to that. God provides all these things and even more so in the life to come. He could have been an amazing disciple, but now we won’t know.
I’m not recommending selling all you have and giving to the poor to follow Jesus, as parents that would be irresponsible. I’m saying don’t let emotions rule you, learn from them, accept what you can’t change and change the things you can.
Life is teaching us. What are you learning?
God Bless.
Corey Payton
St James Chaplain
Mrs Georgia McNamara
Student Wellbeing Leader
gmcnamara@stjamesbrighton.catholic.edu.au
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
For Parish Newsletters, please refer to the new Parish Website
https://www.baysidecatholicmission.org/
Emma Herbert
RE Leader
eherbert@stjamesbrighton.catholic.edu.au