Aurelio Porfiri
A saint much loved by all is St. Therese of Lisieux, also known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus, or even little St. Therese. Perhaps not many know that this saint also had significant mental sufferings: “On Christmas Eve 1886 she will obtain the grace of her transformation, of her complete conversion. She receives the strength of Christ and the healing of a kind of neurosis (excessive shyness, hypersensitivity, emotional fragility, scruples, fears …) that paralyzes her “(ocds.it). Sister Antonella Piccirilli in Saint Teresa of Lisieux. Small but Big, has said: “For this reason it is interesting to approach the life of Therese of Lisieux and to identify the disturbing factors in her path of psycho-spiritual maturity: the repeated detachments experienced in early childhood, the serious neurosis that affects her at age of ten; the onslaught of scruples, her difficult relationship with her body, the humiliation she suffered due to the mental illness of her father. These are wounds that not only have not prevented her from accessing a path of the highest spiritual level, but have even accelerated it, thanks to the intervention of God, grafted onto the Teresian predisposition to trust in him.” This teaches us that we must learn to deal with the increasingly rampant emotional disturbances (anxieties, depression, panic attacks, etc.) by seeking help from God and at the same time relying on those who can provide medical-clinical help.
It seems to me that today spiritual relief is practically forgotten in favor of treatment by psychiatrists and psychologists, who certainly have a role to play, but salvation will not come from them. Meg Hunter-Kilmer (aletheia.org) tells us how often the saints also had to fight with these ailments, as Blessed Enrico Rebuschini, “an Italian Camillian priest, lived with depression all his life. He has experienced various depressive episodes that required hospitalization when he was in his twenties, thirties and even his sixties. During his life, he continued to suffer from depression, but this did not affect his cheerful personality, even if privately it must have cost him a lot.”
In recent years, mental disorders have quintupled, but there is no lack of opportunities to get help, especially from the One who medicus est par excellence, as Saint Ambrose said. Just as we seek the physician for the body, we must not forget to seek the physician for the spirit. If we fall with him, we will rise with him.
Here is another story: St. Albert Chmielowski (1845-1916) was a Polish revolutionary, then a famous painter, before leaving behind fame to found a community of Franciscans to serve the poor. Before founding his order, he entered the Jesuits; during his novitiate, he had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized. Albert spent nine months in a psychiatric hospital, diagnosed with ‘hypochondria, melancholy, religious insanity, anxiety, and psychic oversensitivity.’ Even after his release, Albert remained melancholy and mute, but one day (16 months after the crisis began), he suddenly arose, left town for confession and communion, and returned in excellent spirits. Unlike many who deal with mental illness, he never seems to have suffered from depression again.” This story gives us a sense of optimism and makes us understand that today, with the advancement of medicine, relief from these terrible ailments is possible, even if the way can be very difficult.
But, above all, we must find ourselves in a spiritual dimension that re-centers us in God rather than in our particularities. Religion should regain its role whereby, as we sing in the O Sacrum Convivium, mens impletur gratia, and that mens that is filled with grace is the soul and mind together. Prayer helps; however, it must not become a new way to give vent to one’s obsessions, but a way to walk in God despite one’s frailties.
In recent years, mental disorders have quintupled, but there is no lack of opportunities to get help, especially from the One who medicus est par excellence, as Saint Ambrose said. Just as we seek the physician for the body, we must not forget to seek the physician for the spirit. If we fall with him, we will rise with him.
(Photo: Willgard at Pixabay)
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