Have you noticed that there appears to be an epidemic of sadness in the world today, most especially among the youth? Even though the world tells us to live for pleasure and the satisfaction that comes from having everything we want, people are still unhappy. The pandemic revealed that people today have a hard time handling life when things don’t run as smoothly as all of us have grown accustomed to believing they should.
Should we blame the pandemic or social media or even modern psychology for this epidemic of unhappiness? Is it possible for us to fix ourselves or our loved ones from the curse of feeling that life has no meaning?
You’ll find the answer when EWTN premieres “Acedia – the Diabolical in Disguise,” a powerful one-hour exploration into what is causing this problem and, most importantly, what we can do about it. The show, produced in Spain and dubbed into English, airs at 2 p.m. ET, Saturday, Feb. 17, with an encore at 2 a.m. ET, Sunday, Feb. 18.
If you can, get into a distraction-free environment and prepare to pay attention because this program will surprise you and maybe even make you a little uncomfortable before providing you with an incredible amount of hope. This article covers only one small part of the problems (perhaps the one that will most surprise you) and one of the solutions because we’d have to provide you with a transcript of the entire documentary to do more. You’ll have to watch the entire show to understand all of it, and you may have to watch it several times, which is why we recommend either recording it or going to https://ondemand.ewtn.com after it airs to view it at your leisure. But it’s worth every moment you spend absorbing its wisdom.
Martin Echavarria, PhD, Dean of Psychology, Universitat Abat Oliba CEU
Those who are familiar with, say, the old Baltimore Catechism may think they know the definition of acedia, which used to be called sloth, which we think of as laziness. But Martin Echavarria, PhD, Dean of Psychology, Universitat Abat Oliba CEU, tells us people today are likely to give it another definition: “Acedia is not the same as depression although, since Acedia is fairly unknown, it’s possible that some things diagnosed as depression have acedia as their root cause.”
Before getting into the definitions of acedia [there’s more than one kind] and how to combat it, the program helps us understand the many societal beliefs that are causing so much unhappiness. Here’s just one of the beliefs you’re unlikely to think has negatively affected your happiness or that of your loved ones.
“Positive Psychology or the Science of Happiness, tells us that happiness is a decision that each of us can make, independent of the external circumstances that affect us,” says Diego Albarova Blanco, researcher, writer, and TV Producer, and the man who wrote and directed this documentary. “I decide how to react to this event before me. But it also means, what? It means that if I suffer, if I can’t turn that bad thing into something good, maybe I haven’t tried hard enough, or I haven’t known how to do it. …And that’s what causes so many people today to feel so deeply miserable. Why? Because the person who suffers is, in a way, someone who hasn’t tried hard enough, someone who hasn’t known how to turn the bad into good.”
Angel Barahona, PhD, Dean of Humanities, University of Francisco de Vitoria, Spain
But that’s only one of the many problems human beings encounter in the present day. There’s the existential crisis that all of us will eventually face without the solution to all of this, which we’ll reveal in a moment. “[A]s we burn through life’s stages and see that none of them is satisfying, discomfort is generated inside of us. …We only find disappointment. And that is lethal for the human psyche and also for the soul,” says Angel Barahona, PhD, Dean of Humanities, University of Francisco de Vitoria, Spain.
Before you get ready to throw in the towel with even this brief discussion, Msgr. Juan Carlos Elizalde, Bishop of Vitoria, Spain, rescues us by saying: “Consolation and desolation are languages of God. Desolation doesn’t have to be a curse. On the contrary, if a young person is leading a disastrous, a dissolute, and nocturnal life, etc., and finds himself waking up, deeply sad, in a very bad state, it’s a blessing. This means that he needs to review his decisions. He has a longing for joy, for happiness, for blessedness that God has put in his heart. That’s the sign of discernment.”
And now the program moves into the heart of this discussion. If we can’t find happiness in the usual places, where can we find it? And if Acedia is the problem, what in the world is it?
“If we were to define Acedia, it would be “the evil of our times,” says Psychologist, Psychotherapist, and Seminary Advisor Mercedes Palet, PhD. “If we look around, we would realize that one of the main signs or symptoms of it is sadness. Acedia is a kind of sadness, but it’s a very special kind of sadness because it’s a sadness for the divine good. …So in order to understand Acedia, first, we have to understand that good thing that makes me sad.”
We’re sad because we are void of the joy of God’s Presence. However, as Echavarria explains, “No one can stay sad for long…[so] the person is forced to flee. Flee from what? …The person flees from things that have to do with God and falls into the vice of despair.”
Msgr. Juan Carlos Elizalde, Bishop of Vitoria, Spain
We also flee from God when we flee from the cross. We flee because we don’t understand “that the cross in us, in our history, is a divine good. …Because the cross comes to someone who doesn’t understand it or doesn’t accept it, or the devil deceives him…And so, a good for him because a sadness,” says Blanco.
Barahona picks up the thread of this thought saying something we rarely hear: “Marriage is suffering. Having a family is suffering. A child is a suffering. And we miss the best in a kind of permanent Peter Pan Syndrome. All this fear of suffering. And so, the tranquilizers, the drugs, the alcohol, the weekends, but now, sex or the attractions to suicide, are nothing more than symptoms of the same soft disease.”
This is one of only several types of acedia that are discussed, and we’ll leave you with one of the remedies this program offers.
“One of the most common characteristics of a depressed person is what psychologists call rumination,” says Blanco. “That means that you have a thought…for example, my father doesn’t love me…. And you don’t stop thinking [about it.]. And that drives you totally crazy. So, the most effective remedy to put an end…to these obsessive thoughts and the disease itself that the devil himself can plant within you…is the Word of God. …Not trusting your own thoughts is very hard. …[S]ometimes, we can’t even trust ourselves because we don’t tell ourselves the truth. As Saint John says, ‘God is greater than our conscience, even if our own conscience accuses us, even if we have a repetitive thought that’s really harming us, God is greater.’ That thought, however correct it may seem, however sensible, doesn’t have to be real.
“[So we turn from] own thoughts, to do what? To get support from the Word of God. That’s why it’s so important for a Catholic who’s suffering this sadness to read the Bible, to study it, to do Lectio Divina. Because that’s where they’ll truly find adequate help against those destructive thoughts that a person with depression has.”
Bet you haven’t heard that before. And there’s a lot more where this comes from. Please, for yourself, for your children, for anyone you love, tune into this show and absorb its wisdom. You don’t have to suffer from acedia any longer.