On these Blogger pages we explore TOPICS in our desire to respond to Jesus' call to walk with Him in our world as his missionary disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring to humanity the Good News of the Father's love manifested and given in Jesus, the Divine Mercy. G.S.
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http://opusdei.ca/en-ca/article/5-remedies-against-sadness/
"Saint Thomas Aquinas suggests five remedies
against sadness that have proven surprisingly effective." On certain days
we have all been sad, days when we have been unable to overcome an inner torpor
or depression that weighs down on us and makes it difficult to interact with
others. Is there a trick for overcoming sorrow and recovering our smile? Saint
Thomas Aquinas suggests five remedies against sadness that have proven
surprisingly effective (Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 38).
1. The first remedy is granting ourselves
something we like. It’s as though the famous theologian had already
intuited seven centuries ago that “chocolate is an antidepressant.” This might
seem a bit materialistic, but no one would deny that a tough day can end well
with a good beer. It’s hard to refute this by citing the Gospel, since our Lord
took part joyfully in banquets and feasts, and both before and after his
Resurrection enjoyed the noble and good things in life. One of the Psalms even
says that wine gladdens the human heart (although the Bible also clearly
condemns getting drunk).
2. The second remedy is weeping. Saint
Thomas says that a hurtful thing hurts yet more if we keep it shut up,
because the soul is more intent on it: whereas if it be allowed to escape, the
soul’s intention is dispersed as it were on outward things, so that the inward
sorrow is lessened. (I-II q. 38 a. 2). Our melancholy gets worse if we have
no way to give vent to our sorrow. Weeping is the soul’s way to release a
sorrow that can become paralyzing. Jesus too wept. And Pope Francis said that
“certain truths in life can only be seen with eyes cleansed by tears. I invite
each of you to ask yourself: Have I learned how to cry?”
3. The third remedy is sharing our sorrow with a
friend. I recall here the friend of Renzo in Manzoni’s great novel “The
Betrothed.” Finding himself alone in his deserted home ravaged by the plague
and mourning his family’s horrible fate, he tells Renzo: “What has happened is
horrible, something that I never thought I would live to see; it’s enough to
take away a person’s joy for the rest of his life. But speaking about these
things with a friend is a great help.” This is something we have to experience
in order to understand it. When we are sad, we tend to see everything in tints
of grey. A very effective antidote is opening our heart to a friend. Sometimes
a brief message or phone call is enough for our outlook to once again be filled
with light.
4. The fourth remedy against sadness is
contemplating the truth. Contemplating the “fulgor veritatis” Saint
Augustine speaks of, the splendor of truth in nature or a work of art or music,
can be an effective balm against sadness. A literary critic, a few days after
the death of a dear friend, was scheduled to speak at a conference about the topic
of adventure in the works of Tolkien. He began by saying: “Speaking about
beautiful things to people interested in them is for me a real consolation….”
5. The fifth remedy suggested by Saint Thomas
is perhaps something we wouldn’t expect from a medieval thinker. The theologian
says that a wonderful remedy against sadness is bathing and sleeping.
It’s a deeply Christian viewpoint that in order to alleviate a spiritual malady
one will sometimes have to resort to a bodily remedy. Ever since God became
Man, and therefore took on a body, the separation between matter and spirit has
been overcome in this world of ours.
A widespread error is that Christianity is based on
the opposition between soul and body, with the latter being seen as a burden or
obstacle for the spiritual life. But the right view of Christian humanism is
that the human person (both body and soul) is completely “spiritualized” by
seeking union with God.
“No one thinks it strange to seek out a physician
who cares for the body as a guide for a spiritual illness,” says Saint Thomas
More. “The body and soul are so closely united that together they form a single
person, and hence a malady of one can sometimes be are malady of both.
Therefore, I would advise everyone, when confronted with a physical illness, to
first go to confession, and seek out a good spiritual doctor for the health of
their soul. Likewise for some sicknesses of the soul, besides going to the
spiritual physician, one should also go to a physician who cares for the body.”
AUTHOR Carlo de Marchi, vicar of Opus Dei for
Central-South Italy, at the National Ecclesial Congress in Florence
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On these Blogger pages we explore TOPICS in our desire to respond to Jesus' call to walk with Him in our world as his missionary disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring to humanity the Good News of the Father's love manifested and given in Jesus, the Divine Mercy. G.S.
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