Why Are We So Depressed? | SEEK24 Keynote | The Weight of Our Brokenness | Msgr. James Shea

in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen oh most high and glorious God cast your light into the darkness of our hearts give us right Faith firm hope and perfect charity with wisdom and perception that we might know and do your most holy will may your light within us burn shining forth in perfect charity amen Mary Mother of the Redeemer pray for us I get a lot of Christmas cards when final examinations are over at the University of Mary and students and professors are home for Christmas break with their families I like to find a few hours of quiet and I sit down and prayerfully read through the whole stack of them it's wonderful to hear from family and friends especially those who are far away I've noticed a trend away from the traditional Christmas card with the nativity scene in the scripture verse toward a new format a Shutterfly photo collage with a slogan you know what I'm talking about out I like these two you can watch kids grow up from year to year in the photos everybody is beaming and radiant and you can rank them according to who took the most fabulous vacation and so there's a couple on their honeymoon and they're taking a picture in front of the Opera House in Sydney Australia or in front of Blarney Castle in Ireland [Music] there are 27 grandkids all arranged neatly on a Minnesota Lake Shore or on a Caribbean Beach and they're all in colorcoded t-shirts According to which uncle or Aunt they belong to and then there's a little sprig of Holly to indicate Christmas and a slogan Merry and bright silver bells best year ever Fel Navid one of the slogans that I saw this year more often than I thought I would was this one comfort and joy I thought that was great comfort and joy captures the season it it radiates a kind of festive Spirit comfort and joy but about the fifth or sixth time that I sigh I pushed my chair back and I asked myself I wonder if people know where that comes from I wonder if they know what the phrase Christmas what the phrase comfort and joy has to do with Christmas it comes from a 400-year-old Carol God Rest Ye Mery gentlemen let nothing you dismay remember Christ Our Savior was born on Christmas day to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray oh Tidings of Comfort and Joy comfort and joy so Comfort and Joy are for us at Christmas comfort and joy wash over us because when we were in Satan's power when we had gone astray Christ was born to save us when we were in Satan's power last night you heard the wonderful news that we were made for relationship with God tomorrow you will hear the Earth shattering good news that God has saved us and I'm here to tell you the bad news I'm the messenger you should shoot I'm the guy you should boo off the stage this always happens to me the last time I gave a keynote at seek they said father why don't you talk to them about death it happens to me on my own campus at the University of Mary we have beautiful gorgeous masses during Holy Week and no matter what happens I'm always assigned as the presider for Good Friday and I say oh pretty please couldn't I just have Holy Thursday for once and they say no Manor you're kind of a good Friday [Applause] priest like I'm Darth Vader okay so here's the bad news there is a dark Veil that hangs over the human race there's a tragedy that runs through all human life which touches upon the Indescribable we see it all around us everywhere you see it inside yourself gaze with me into the long annals of human history The Monuments and memories of the human race in the rich tapestry of human cultures in every time and place there is a Common Thread everywhere we see the same hopes and aspirations everywhere we see the same outer conflict and inner Discord everywhere human beings have settled upon the face of the Earth they have brought with them powerful talents and incurable moral diseases everywhere they go they build they fashion works of usefulness and Beauty they inquire into the world around them and penetrate Secrets they clamor for a kind of greatness that they experience deep within their chests and they aim for it and everywhere they go they pillage and oppress and Destroy they stir up murderous conflicts they pray upon each other for material gain they send up cries of suffering and despair and everywhere they go they die always they die the human race is haunted we among all the creatures on the face of the Earth are ill at ease with our existence we're lost in this world we're lost in our own lives and we can take that for granted we can think it's how it's supposed to be that it's normal but it's not it is very surprising highly unusual and it demands an explanation in the last decade we've seen a societal explosion in loneliness anxiety deep sadness and a general inability to cope with life especially among University students and people shout at me they say manor what are you going to do about it you're at a university and I give good answers I I say well we have to consider the effects of social media on the brain we live in a polarized and divided culture and young people feel the effects of that we need better access to Mental Health Services but every now and then I want to give a different answer every now and then I want to say Hey listen has it ever occurred to you that maybe our young people are on to something have you ever thought that maybe they might might not just be dead wrong about how they're feeling maybe feeling sad and anxious and burdened and Barren is an appropriate and adequate response to growing up in a world without God maybe maybe it's a good response an appropriate response to growing up to coming of age to entering into life in A Brave New World in which everything is permitted and nothing is Forgiven and to be yet more clear and to raise the stakes shouldn't you be anxious if there's someone who's following you around who has your number who hates you with a deep personal malice and who's trying to kill you yeah anxiety is not a stupid response to that nightmare scenario and the bad news is that I've just described your life to you you are in Mortal danger because you share a vulnerability with all free creatures that touches them at the point of the great gift of their freedom and that means that your life is caught up in an epic drama that reaches back to before there was time before the universe or the world or the human race because before all that in his great goodness God made Angels the noblest of all created beings like himself in intelligence and in Freedom and he poured into them the greatest measure of his power and the highest of all the Angels was named Lucifer the lightbearer the son of the Dawn the day star he was magnificent blindingly beautiful unequal in splendor his freedom opened out upon a glorious Destiny to respond in love to the one who made him to an eternity of glory and life with God but Freedom also has a perilous possibility to be able to love is also to be able to turn away in self centered Pride blinded by his Beauty and his strength envious of God not wanting to serve but to rule Lucifer incited a rebellion and so was cast out from the presid presence of God along with all the Angels who sided with him now corrupted by his pride cut off from God Lucifer degenerated into a spirit of malice and hatred new names were given to him the one who is called the day star was now the dragon the serpent Satan the accuser the devil the evil one aoleon the Destroyer the deceiver of the whole world the prophet Isaiah wrote a lament for him oh how you have fallen oh Day star oh son of dawn how you are are cut down to the Earth you who laid Nations low you said in your heart I will Ascend to the heavens above the stars of God I will set my Throne on high I will sit down on the Mount of assembly in the far north I will Ascend above the clouds and make myself like unto the most high but you will be brought down to Shale to the depths of the pit it was a terrible disaster and then there was another disaster and how did this second disaster happen some say word got out that there was to be a new kind kind of creature who would take the place in the presence of God forfeited by Satan and the demons fallen angels and the appearance of this new creature was met with great perplexity because although they were like God and the angels in their intelligence and in their freedom they were also made out of the Dust of the earth blood bones and Marrow carbon nitrogen minerals which made them also relatives with the pigs and sparrows and ants and grass and rocks and these lowly creatures a handful of mud were going to inherit the place lost by Satan it must not be and so he approached them with cruel malice scheming to infect them with his own Darkness he knew if they became asang from God then they would be easy prey for his more powerful will and that of his army of demons so he filled their ears with lies he laid a cunning trap because he didn't first try to tempt them with bodily pleasure or with money or possessions he didn't try to incite them to anger or turn them against each other all of that would come later no he went for their freedom he seized upon an inner conviction that they had that they were were made for great even Divine things and he said yes yes you were made for greatness but why should you trust God to fulfill that longing take it for yourself God in fact is the one standing between you and your fulfillment Rebel declare your Independence this is his root strategy always to spoil Freedom this is the foundation of all his lives God is not a good father no he's your rival it's your happiness or his and they believe the serpent and they did Rebel and and then the serpent took them captive they became his slaves the rebellion was not forced upon them it was not faded to happen no they were truly and genuinely free but once it did happen they were not free to avoid its consequences their relationship with God was now shattered it lab broken on the ground whereas once they had been his own beloved children delighting in his presence now when he called to them they ran away and hid the order of their inner being was damaged they were no longer at ease in each other's presence they experienced shame and H felt the need to hide parts of themselves from each other and their environment became harsh now they had to work for the food that they ate and their creative fertility was struck with suffering and their inner life was no longer under their Mastery now their minds wandered into delusion and falsehood and their Wills no longer settled with calm Clarity upon that which was good and their emotions and their senses became inflamed and rose up trying to overthrow them and overpower them the harmony of their inner lives was thrown into confusion and now cut off from the only source of all life they faced the curse of death now they were slaves to a malicious evil spirit and set on a course a path to Ultimate total death and from them the whole human race descended and though they tried over the course of tens of thousands of years to set things right to shake free from the curse they were never able to do it on their own and here we are their descendants haunted by the memory of what they once lost Longing For Goodness but caught by evil Desiring truth but prone to falsehood eager for communion and belonging but tortured by loneliness yearning for immortality but faced with death so if you are sad anxious burdened or overwhelmed maybe you're not just dead wrong maybe you're responding reasonably to the tragedy of your life to the tragedy that grips us all because there's someone who's following you around who has your number who hates you with Fierce personal malice and who's trying to kill you I don't know you who am I to speak to you like this I know my students at the University of Mary and they're a wreck I love you they're beautiful but they're a mess but who are you what about you did you flush your drugs down the toilet just before you got on the bus to come here did you sleep with your girlfriend just last night are you unable to stop thinking about taking your own life do you allow bitter horrific lies to pound on your mind all day long WR you're worthless and disposable you're all alone your life is worth nothing if people found out who you were the truth they wouldn't want anything to do with you you should just give up but what if you're not irredeemably broken what if the lies are all just garbage what if you were able to break free maybe you're chained up and you've got duct tape over your mouth maybe you're living under tyranny but chains can be broken and tyranny can be overthrown but can that happen for us can it happen for our curse can it happen to death and to sin in the language of the Bible from the biblical perspective death and sin are different than you might think death is not just something that happens to you sin is not just something that you do the scriptures speak of them as if they were governments they have power and authority and dominion and if they have dominion within you that's why you do the things you don't want to do there's a power at work in you that's stronger than you and there's nothing you can do on your own to break free and that's the bad news and that's all I'm supposed to tell you tonight cuz I'm the Good Friday priest I'm Darth Vader but Jesus came to break the power of Satan Jesus came to break the power of Satan to deal with our guilt and to bring us back to life I'm sorry I can't help it and then he tricked the devil into killing him into killing him him whom death cannot hold so that he would rise up triumphant and wreak havoc upon death and sin and break them down and destroy their power and Satan does get at us by telling our minds powerful lies but we don't have to believe the lies anymore because now we've got the witness of the gospel and the teaching of the of the church to ground Us in truth so that our minds are free and the wound of sin is very deep in US but is nowhere near the deepest part of us much deeper down in the caverns of our baptized soul is a home for God a place for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we're capable through baptism of life with God and God living in us and one last thing there is an ironclad rule in the Christian spiritual life because Satan has been overthrown now the very very worst thing he can ever do to us is to get us to give up and if we don't give up we always win if we don't give up we always win because because we have access to the sacraments so long as we don't give up we always always win all because Christ was born to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray oh Tidings of Comfort and Joy Comfort [Applause] [Music] Joy

Channel: FOCUS Catholic

Views: 33,266

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Id: JWXVS9yXVo0

Length: 26min 46sec (1606 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2024