Happy Eastertide: God's still in charge so there's no need for anxiety.

It's easy to feel defeated with non-stop bad news, but why give the bad guys what they want?

I’m not a meme person but every once in a while, I will get one that makes me nod my head in agreement. Below is one such meme that a friend of mine sent via a group text yesterday. (Insert visual of Andrew Dunn nodding his head as you read the following).

The timing of this is perfect. It’s still the Joyous Season of Eastertide but you’d never know it from all the crap on the tee-vee, the internet, and alas, here on Substack. And then there are those addicted to such media, forgetting the beauty of Easter Sunday just a couple weeks ago, and falling into depression and/or anxiety over everything from Donald Trump-Kusher, to Benjamin Netanyahoo, to a certain demon-worshipping bad imposter who a disappointing 95 plus percent of Catholics think is the holy father. Why? When you study the Promises of Christ in the Sacred Scriptures, there’s actually nothing to fret about. I know that may sound easier said than done with a bad economy, drought, war and ongoing suppression of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, so allow me to dissect this meme for clarification.

Your anxiety is an insult to God’s size. Imagine being the parent of 8.3 billion people alive today in this world, untold billions alive in Purgatory, and hopefully more than that in Heaven. You are responsible for each of those individuals and have to be fluent in all of their personalities, good deeds and faults (faults apply to those of us on earth and Purgatory). Every call for help, you have to hear. Every act of bad behavior, you have to see and punish. Every sincere moment of repentance, you have to forgive. Welcome to not only a day in the life of God the Holy Trinity but also His Blessed Mother, Mary. Yep, she’s the Heavenly Mother to all of those who hate her, including the talmudists and so-called christian zionists - and she loves them anyway. Now before anyone thinks I’m putting our responsibilities on the same level as The Almighty, relax, I’m not. Think of it as being a child under the age of reason. When something happens that causes a breakdown, we don’t just self-destruct but rather learn to turn to our mom and/or dad for help. The problem today is that we don’t turn to Him or His Mother first before descending into selfish anxiety.

Every time you worry, you’re essentially telling God that your problem is bigger than His power. Lost your job? Other jobs are out there. Cancer diagnosis? Surgery and/or treatment can often take care of that. Getting ready to be executed by savages because you are Catholic? Friendly reminder that being martyred for the Faith is often a direct ticket to Heaven. Those are three very serious things that can happen to any of us (and yes, in today’s world, that last one applies). But God has the power to get you a new job by putting the right people in your path. He has the power to miraculously cure you by the scientifically explained or like the file book at Lourdes, the miraculous. And yes, you have the ability to be a saint by many ways, including red martyrdom. All three of these scenarios, as well as hundreds of others both serious and trivial have solutions: they just require faith on our part, and a complete surrender to His will.

Every time you panic, you’re forgetting that nothing is impossible for Him. If you’ve never been to a Traditional Latin Mass parish or chapel, go and just observe. Observe not just The Mass but also the after-Mass socials and the behavior of the people outside the sanctuary. You’ll notice a LOT of very large families as in seven plus children, mostly born one after another, into a one-income (the father) situation because the mother is a homemaker and also a homeschool teacher. What you’ll also notice is that these families are nine point nine times out of ten, very peaceful and joyful. The children are well behaved and the parents are calm, cool and collected. Why? These families aren’t wealthy - they’re living month-to-month. The father can’t afford to lose his job, and the unpaid mother at home with all of those kids hasn’t a minute of time to herself. What gives? Well, nothing gives because they entrust themselves two hundred percent to God and His Will for them. God will provide for them and He does. I’ve been a Traditional Catholic for two decades now and have yet to see a large, Traditional Catholic family to be a train-wreck. I can’t say the same for many of the secularized, small families that are attached to the things of this world and especially those affected by divorce and divorce and remarriage. Trust in God and He will provide. He may not provide you with an abundance of stocks, sports cars or Taylor Swift tickets to please your teenaged daughters, but He will provide with what’s right to keep you and your family on a path to better holiness.

God doesn’t just know your situation; He’s already orchestrating the solution. Sometimes God let’s us go all the way to the edge of a cliff. He’d rather not (not that I can speak for Him) but I do know that He wants us to want Him. When we’re helplessly at the edge of the cliff, figuratively about to fall into the abyss, the only thing between us and the abyss is Him - even the most hardened of atheists deep down know this, they just won’t let their pride admit it. How many times in your life have you had to face some type of hard re-set and after the trauma of it all, later realized that had that not happened, the outcome would have been much worse than the then-situation, which in turn was what you really needed? He works in mysterious ways… trust in those mysterious ways as He sends them.

Your stress is wasted energy. Your fear is misplaced faith. Tune out the controlled-opposition Fox News and definitely tune out their frenemies on CNN and MSNBC. Same for all the doomsday conspiracy bloggers and podcasters. They want you to be stressed so you can think that their advice is the medicine you need. But like opioids, they don’t actually help with the pain relief. You get sucked into addiction further and further with a dependency on something abusive that can’t be easily broken. How about time instead at the Adoration Chapel? How about no tee-vee at home at all and use the evening hours instead to read Vespers, Compline and to pray the full fifteen decades of the Rosary? How about waking up every morning to prayers of thanksgiving and some spiritual reading from the Bible or the writings of the saints? Sean Hannity and Nicole Wallace aren’t going to miss you anyway.

Put it down and trust the One who made the universe. If you are new to my Substack and care to check out my earlier posts, you’ll note that I like to upload classical artwork (never A.I.) to my posts where appropriate. Obviously, I have a great appreciation and respect for fine craftsmanship. But, you know what makes the intricacies of the most detailed DaVinci painting or Michelangelo sculpture look like chicken scratch? The things around you and I that God Himself made. At the risk of sounding like some earth day hippie (which I’m not), take a look at the azalea bushes and flowering cherry trees that have been sprouting with the dawn of Spring. Pretty amazing that these delicate little flowers appear year after year despite winter’s chill and the summer’s unforgiving heat but they do. Same for the honeybees who are amazing little creatures that know how to insulate themselves in the worst of winter weather and after a hibernation, emerge to crank out that delicious honey that not only sweetens tea, but also knocks out allergies for folks like me (take that pharma industry!) Glaciers may have been the tools that carved the stunning fjords of Norway and volcanos the tools that built Iceland, but tools need a guiding hand in order to make things. The world around us from the polars, to the deserts, and the green spaces in-between are fascinating, but especially when we wake up to the reality that a prime mover made them. And the same applies to you, me, the cute border collie chasing the sheep, and the majestic eagle that knows how to snap a fish out of the stream without looking at it. He who made all of that and more can do whatever He wants and wills. So why wouldn’t we trust ourselves completely to such a master craftsman?

Amen. Amen indeed. Pray more; worry less. God’s in charge and always has been.