Episode Details

Coronavirus Crisis: Carpe Diem

The Four Pillars of Psychological Resilience for Catholics

Episode 4:

It’s the late 7th century BC in Judah.  The northern kingdom of Israel has already been destroyed by the dominant Assyrians, 200 years ago.  The whole northern kingdom lost forever, 10 tribes gone, utterly ruined.  The little southern kingdom of Judah survived, two tribes left, Judah and Benjamin, but those two tribes are surrounded by powerful enemies, idolatrous nations running rampant.  

 The ruling Assyrians are brutal, even by the standards of the day.  But by this time Assyria is in a late-stage empire collapse.  Assyrian nobles are jockeying for power and position, with palace intrigues and dirty dealing.  Betrayals and internal power plays are the name of the game.  Insurrections are on the rise, civil disturbances are breaking out as factions consolidate under rival warlords.  The political situation was very dangerous and rapidly changing.  

The conquered peoples under the Assyrian’s harsh rule – the Medes, Persians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Scythians, Cimmerians became increasingly restive and hostile.  These subjected nations, all much more powerful than little Judah smelled the Assyrians’ weakness like blood in the water.  They sharpened their swords and were bided their time for payback.  And little Judah, powerless, weak, vulnerable --  little Judah finds itself riding a red tricycle in a demolition derby.  And in 616 BC it happened, like rolling thunder, real rebellions break out from the simmering tensions. 

By 613 BC, the Babylonian army has broken free and with a vengeance is headed for Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the biggest, most powerful city of the world.  The Medes, Persians, Cimmerians and Scythians all join in with the Babylonians and pile on.  It’s payback time for the brutal years of subjection.  The Assyrians have ruled for centuries and they are not rolling over.  It was a clash of titans.  The battle for Nineveh lasted months, with hand-to-hand fighting from street to street and house to house.  The city finally falls in 612 BC and the victorious armies sack, loot and burn Nineveh.   

Now we have a huge power vacuum.  The political and military situation was highly fluid, very unpredictable and really dangerous the cars crashed and burned in the derby and little Judah rode on.  

Cue the Prophet Habakkuk:  

I hear, and my body trembles,

    my lips quiver at the sound;

rottenness enters into my bones,

    my steps totter beneath me.

I will quietly wait for the day of trouble

    to come upon people who invade us

So why am I sharing with you the story of the fall of Nineveh and the words of Habakkuk?  Because the book of Habakkuk is all about a wild, tumultuous time, and there is great psychological wisdom in it.  Those wild, unpredictable and dangerous days are also a great rea-life historical backdrop to this five episode series on resiliency.  In the next five episodes I am giving you a mini-course on psychological and spiritual resilience in our own current crisis.  

I’m sharing with you the four pillars of internal, personal resilience in the face of crisis.  These are the four critical elements that distinguish among those that thrive in hard times, from those that survive, from those that don’t make it and fall into despair.  I call these mindset, heartset, soulset and bodyset.  I draw from the best of psychology grounded in a Catholic worldview.  And I also draw in references from CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters and JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.  

So four pillars of resilience.  What are these four pillars?  Mindset, Heartset, Soulset, Bodyset.  

I’m going to start with the most important pillar – guess which one it is.  Mindset, Heartset, Soulset and Bodyset.  

All of you w