...And the Place Was Shaken: Holy Boldness
The Two-Factor Theory of phobias uses a behaviorist paradigm to explain how phobias maintain their strength. By definition, a phobia leads me to avoid the feared object. If I have an elevator phobia, I get really anxious about getting on an elevator. If I decide to take the stairs instead, I feel immediate relief. The immediate relief reinforces the decision to avoid the elevator, strengthening an avoidance response. So I become more and more likely to avoid elevators.
One of the most effective treatments for phobia is in vivo exposure - that is, exposure to the feared stimulus in real life, not just in one’s imagination. Exposure therapy has clients approach the object of their fear, in real life, in the company of the therapist. The first goal is to break the link between avoidance and anxiety relief, through repeated experiences of the feared object. The second is to forge a link between approach and anxiety relief.
For example, for an elevator phobia, I would learn relaxation exercises to practice while I and my therapist repeatedly rode the elevator - up and down, up and down, up and down. At first, my anxiety would hit the roof. But, with repeated elevator rides, the reassurance of my therapist, and the gradual realization that nothing horrible was going to happen, my anxiety would gradually subside. With each repetition, the anxiety would increase less and decrease more quickly. Eventually, I would begin to associate going into an elevator with a sense of reasonably calm competence, rather than terror.
As I addressed in my last post, we are living in troubled times. The woke culture increasingly pushes against Christianity, especially in the areas of sexual identity and morality. Freedom of religious belief and conscience is attacked, whether it’s about baking a cake or hiring an employee at a Christian institution.
Naturally, we like to avoid situations that could lead to being ridiculed, ignored, patronized, or harassed. Maybe if we keep our heads down, the de facto persecution will stop. The Big Bad World will go away. If we stay in our bubbles and don’t say too much, perhaps the Cancel Culture will leave us alone. So when God calls us to speak up or act with courage, we may not.
The avoidance of backlash may bring relief - though maybe with it a sting of conscience. The danger is that the more we avoid speaking out as Christians, the more we get confirmed and paralyzed in our fear. In Two Factor Theory terms, our avoidance of standing up for the truth gets reinforced by our relief at escaping society’s backlash.
But this is not what God is calling to us in our day.
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control.(2 Tim 1:7, RSV).
The Church of God is not to be on the defensive, but on the offensive.
Our parish recently had a mission led by Deacon Keith Strohm, who hails from my home town, Chicago. Born with a congenital defect leaving him with just a third of his left arm, he is an inspiring speaker with a great testimony of deliverance from shame through the power of God’s love. (To find out more about him, or to have him speak at your parish, go to www.m3catholic.com.) The third evening of the mission, when he spoke about why we need the Holy Spirit, the church was absolutely thick with the presence of God. He preached on Matthew 16:18 -
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (ESV)
Deacon Keith pointed out that the gates are guarding hell, not the Church. That is, the Church is not crouching behind a protective fence or wall in fear of Satan’s attacks. We are on the attack, taking back ground from the powers of evil. The gates of hell will fall to the Church, not vice versa.
The early Church lived in this reality. Holy boldness was the hallmark of the Acts community. It was this boldness, along with faith-filled reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit, that caused Christianity to spread like wildfire throughout the Roman Empire. For example, Acts 3 and 4 narrate the episode where Peter and John heal a lame beggar and are brought before the Sanhedrin, the same judicial body that condemned Jesus to death. Instead of cowering with fear, Peter preaches with power, urging his listeners to believe in Jesus.
When Peter and John are released, they gather the other Christians who live in Jerusalem. The whole assembly prays. For protection? For the Jewish authorities to leave them alone? No - for even greater boldness! “They threw us in jail. They threatened us with dire consequences for speaking out about Jesus. So - let’s do it again! But even MORE boldly!”
They pray
“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:29-31, ESV).
Oh, how the Body of Christ needs that holy shaking! How we Christians in the West need to abandon our gospel of comfort, conflict avoidance, and people-pleasing for the holy boldness of the early Church, of the early Jesuits, of today’s house church movement in China, of the faithfulness-unto-death of the MANY Christians being martyred worldwide even as I write this!
Those who are living in that boldness will tell you: “I used to be so afraid of speaking out. But as I began to do so, my fear dissolved. I became ALIVE as a Christian. I could unashamedly say, ‘This is our faith. This is the faith of our Church. We are proud to profess it, in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ “
I had a tiny taste of this years ago, when a friend organized a sit-in in front of a Milwaukee abortion clinic. As we gathered at the church before going to the clinic, my anxiety rose. My friend Robin quoted, “Rejoice in the Lord always! I shall say it again! Rejoice! Have no anxiety at all…”, from Philippians 4. That was encouraging - but I was still scared.
We arrived well before the clinic opened and sat shoulder to shoulder, blocking the front door and praying silently. And suddenly, I felt amazingly calm. I remember thinking, “I have never felt so proud to be a Christian. I have never felt so solidly RIGHT, for standing up for the unborn and witnessing publicly to what the Church believes.” I had an inkling of an inkling of what St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote on his way to martyrdom - “Now I begin to be a disciple.”
The police arrived. We were handcuffed and put into paddy wagons and jailed for a few hours. We were released after paying a fine for “disorderly conduct”. Although one or two prospective clients decided not to enter the clinic when they saw the sit-in, we probably didn’t affect the abortion clinic’s “business” otherwise. But the experience affected me. It freed me - a little - from my fear.
As one becomes accustomed to speaking the truth in love and facing the possibility of backlash, fear diminishes and boldness increases. One becomes more focused on saving souls and less focused on possible losses, just as formerly phobic elevator riders become more focused on getting where they want to go quickly and easily than on the fears that once paralyzed them.
We don’t need to seek out conflict. Western culture is clearly moving in a direction where it will seek us out. But neither do we need to avoid it. We need to be open to whatever battles the Lord calls us to fight - in humility, but firm in our faith.
We need not, we cannot live in fear. In St. Ignatius of Loyola’s stirring image, we are soldiers under the captainship of Christ, in a battle not fought with earthly weapons but with love and truth. We are taking back ground for Christ. The gates of Hell will not prevail against us.
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God will help her right early.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge (Ps 46:1-4, RSVCE).
If not for the holy boldness of the earliest Christians and every generation of Christians since, I would not be writing this post and you would likely not be reading it. We stand on the shoulders of giants who risked all for the sake of Christ. As my pastor, Fr. Mark, asked, “Who is going to stand on our shoulders?” What are we willing to risk? How far will we follow Jesus?
The mountains may shake and tremble, nations rage and kingdoms totter. Let us be shaken by the power of the Spirit and “speak the word of God with boldness.” And the place was shaken…