Weltschmerz, World Pain: I am afraid it may kill me
When the world as we have known it is replaced by an apocalyptic movie set, how do we face it and welcome the pain, anger, resentment and confusion as invitations to evolve into something more?
One of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, especially esteemed for his essays on the black experience in the United States, James Baldwin writes, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
Baldwin’s wise words set me moaning.
I moan with the many blameless police as well as their several brutal colleagues, for the pain that inflames all of them.
I moan with the victims of bullying, armed conflict, gang violence, domestic abuse, mass shootings and terrorism as well as their perpetrators, for the pain that inflames all of them.
I moan with the peaceful protesters calling for an end to racial, ethnic and religious violence as well as their agitated provocateurs, for the pain that inflames all of them.
I moan with the people on the political left, the political right and those who wander wondering where to plant their feet, for the pain that inflames all of them.
Following the troubling trail of my moaning, I fall through a funnel of fear, fear that I cannot bear the depths of my personal and collective pain. The Germans have a word of this. ‘Weltschmerz.’ World pain. I am afraid it may kill me.
When the world as we have known it is replaced by an apocalyptic movie set, how do we face it and welcome the pain, anger, resentment and confusion as invitations to evolve into something more? If we are brutally honest, we are more likely to eat, drink, do drugs, binge watch Netflix, run or even meditate seeking distraction or pleasurable escape. The thing is, no amount of food, drink, drugs, binge TV watching, running nor meditation will salve the weltschmertz, the world pain that permeates our apocalyptic movie set. Returning to James Baldwin’s words, “Nothing can be changed until it is faced”
Which is why Jesus counsels the disciples and us saying, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (See text below) What? Jesus did not come to bring us a happily ever after life?
Here is what I think.
Jesus brings a sword to unmask the ways we run from reality and excise the lies we tell ourselves and others. Let’s face it.
Jesus brings a sword to strip away our penchant for blaming or shaming others and ourselves rather than applaud our shared humanity. Let’s face it.
Jesus brings a sword to sever our hold on self securing status quo conditions and free our minds to conceive something new. Let’s face it.
I do not know about you, but I hold my breath and recoil. I recoil because I feel vulnerable. I feel vulnerable because my father and mother, brother and daughter, colleagues and friends will hate and abandon me if I dare to moan with the pain of people whom they call other. But Jesus counsels, “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known… “
Eventually we all will face ourselves and the apocalyptic movie set in which we are living. And if we have any hope to bank the overflowing well of weltschmertz, best we take Baldwin’s words to head and heart and action. “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
It is time to face Jesus’s sword. It is time to face our selves, to open our minds and hearts and moan with the pain of all people because this is the way to change our crises into blessing; to redeem the world’s pain by advancing our capacity for compassionate humanity. For nothing can be changed until we face and feel our world pain and are moved to do something about it.
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All words are generated by grace and the grit of a real human being. Debra Asis
Matthew 10:24–39 Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
