Anxiety, or patience?

I told Jamie, who was writing about anxiety and OCD in the time of coronavirus last night, that I was going to find a particular quote from St. Francis de Sales about anxiety, and post it on my blog.  I knew I had read it recently (I'm reading Introduction à la Vie Dévote in the original somewhat-updated French now), and it would be simple to find it.    

Where was it now... something about doing the possible remedies and then trusting God?  I mean, it wasn't particularly profound, it was the sort of thing you could find anyone saying to anyone else, including lots of people who would never say "and then trust in God" but would instead say something like "and then let it go" or "and then let the universe take care of it."  There is definitely a chapter entitled Anxiety... let's see...  

I flipped through the pages quite a bit before realizing that in fact the passage is not in the chapter about "anxiety" but is in the chapter about "patience."

French below, followed by my own (quick, unscholarly) translation.  It's the second paragraph I was looking for.

Soyez patiente, non seulement pour le gros et principal des afflictions qui vous surviendront, mais encore pour les accessoires et accidents qui en dépendront.  Plusieurs voudraient bien avoir du mal, pourvu qu'ils n'en fussent point incommodés.  Je ne me fâche point, dit l'un, d'être devenu pauvre, si ce n'était qu cela m'empêchera de servir mes amis, élever mes enfants et vivre honorablement, comme je désirerais.  Et l'autre dira:  je ne m'en soucierais point, si ce n'était que le monde pensera que cela me soit arrivé par ma faute.  L'autre serait tout aise que l'on médit de lui, et le souffrirait fort patiemment, pourvu que personne ne crût le médisant.....  Or je dis, Philothée, qu'il faut avoir patience, non seulement d'être malade, mais de l'être de la maladie que Dieu veut, au lieu où il veut, et entre les personnes qu'il veut, et avec les incommodités qu'il veut, et ainsi des autres tribulations.

Quand il vous arrivera du mal, opposez à icelui les remèdes qui seront possibles et selon Dieu:  car de faire autrement, ce serait tenter sa divine Majesté: mais aussi cela étant fait, attendez avec une entière résignation l'effet que Dieu agréera.  S'il lui plaît que les remèdes vainquent le mal, vous le remercierez avec humilité:  mais s'il lui plaît que le mal surmonte les remèdes, bénissez-le avec patience.

"Be patient, not only with the obvious, dominant afflictions that happen to you, but also with the secondary effects and consequences that follow upon them.  Many people would gladly be willing to suffer, provided that they were not at all inconvenienced by it.  "I wouldn't get upset," says one, "about having become poor, if it weren't for the fact that it makes it so hard to help my friends, raise my children, and live decently, the way I would like."  And another will say:  "I wouldn't care one bit that this should happen to me, if it weren't for everybody thinking that it my own fault."  Yet another is quite delighted when some person bad-mouths him, and will very patiently put up with it--provided that no one actually believes the gossip!  But what I'm telling you, Philothea, is that you have to have patience, not only about being unwell, but about the types of maladies that God wills, in the place where he wills it, and in the company that he wills for you, and inconvenienced in the ways he wills for you, and so on with other trials and tribulations.

When something bad happens to you, counter it with remedies that are both feasible and in accordance with God; because to do otherwise is to put his divine Majesty to the test; but having done this, be ready with complete resignation for whatever outcome God is pleased to send you.  If God wills that your efforts defeat your troubles, then thank him with humility; but if instead he wills that the maladies grow too great for your efforts to overcome, bless him, with patience."

 

+ + +

I guess I remembered "anxiety" because of this very last bit.  It's slightly different than I remembered.  It's not "do what you can from what's permitted, and then trust God" but rather "do what you can, and then wait for the consequences; if they work out for the good, be thankful -- which is humility; and if they don't, bless God anyway -- which is patience."

It seems important in this time because some folks seem determined to put God to the test with respect to the malady we are currently being sent.  And not even just wishing to put themselves at risk, but other people.  I don't feel like linking any of the opinion pieces I am thinking about right now, but they are out there.

When something bad happens to you, counter it.  St. Francis says "avec les remèdes qui seront possibles" which is obviously cognate to English "possible" but another meaning is "feasible, realizable."  I took the liberty of assuming that he meant "possible" in a practical sense, not "possible" in a theoretical one, since the whole clause "qui seront possibles et selon Dieu" seems to me evident to be a limiting phrase.  

It's not feasible that we can eliminate every single theoretically possible source of contamination that could disturb our safety.  Not only that, but there's a point beyond which our efforts would no longer be "in accordance with God" --- if we endanger others, if we unnecessarily disturb and frighten them, if it gets in the way of the daily duties we really are bound to perform.  St. Francis doesn't give us a precise definition of the balancing point, just the principle.  Yes, we are bound to work against the bad things that befall us.  We are also bound to work against them insofar as it doesn't rupture our relationships (from our own ends):  gotta keep loving our neighbor; gotta keep our lifeline to the way, the truth, the life.

And then---this part isn't "trust God" as I remembered it---it's be ready to take whatever comes, a peaceful acceptance.  Notice that the acceptance takes different forms depending if the outcome is good or bad.  If good, we accept it in humility, giving thanks.  If bad, we accept it with... more patience, and praising God as we ought to all along.  Follow the flowchart arrow, it strikes out, elbows upward, back to the beginning.  Some new ill has befallen us; it is time, once again, to counter the new ill with new remedies, new remedies which strike a new balance, now in different conditions, but always weighing the possible against the permissible.

No point in countering the current malady with future remedies that would be appropriate for the malady we imagine might befall us later as a consequence of the efforts we are expending now.

Patience is what we all need a lot of, right now.

There's a bit more in this section, about how to complain about your situation with a measure of prudence.  Perhaps I'll do that later--- but right now it's time to start teaching the kids, which is, after all, one of the remedies I am putting my efforts into right now.

Comments

[Jamie]

Thanks for this.

The thing that trips me up is imagining consequences -- not just the event, but all the things that might follow on its heels.

It is very sensible advice, but to someone who hasn't read Intro to the Devout Life it also reads as a bit stern.

[bearing]

I am sure I haven’t gotten the tone quite right. To me it sounds reassuring, in part because to my utter astonishment there seem to be far too many people advising AGAINST taking precautions and remedies, and others nodding sagely alongside. It infuriates me to think that through fatalism or magical thinking or even a demented piety someone might fail to take even simple and easy remedies. But then, that there’s a point when, having tried to reduce exposure, you do get to say “I’ve done quite a bit and additional work will give me diminishing returns, and it’s got to be okay for me to turn my attention to something else.” And when you do that, that you haven’t failed or quit prematurely or been reckless. None of us are perfect or can be, even though bad things could still befall us, it isn’t entirely in our control.

But yeah, these might only soothe my particular flavor of compulsiveness, which has more to do with not being found at fault.

[Jane Meyerhofer]

Wandering through the internet....
I have always taken comfort in a different part of St. francis's advice about anxiety. He said that being anxious is the worst thing that can heppen to a soul except for sin. He says it is natural to wish for bad things to be gone but we must work patiently towards that end. I can't cut and paste the quote but it's easy to google.