Our society is full of anxiety and fears: of death, illness, hunger, famine, war, crime, unemployment, natural disasters, failure, etc. An overlooked consequence of fear is the feverish rhythm of our activities and thoughts, which leaves the feeling that life is flying by, without time for intellectual leisure, that is, to think and reflect. In fact, the hyperactivism that characterizes modern man has its own name: it is called “flight.” We escape from thinking about eternity, the meaning of life and death, the mystery of pain, our finiteness, God, our destiny after death, our mission in the world. Our major occupations are often nothing more than excuses for not thinking about what we are, and what we will become, because these truths frighten us. We live with fear; fear feeds many of our actions.
At each moment we are intimidated by having to think about the meaning of what we are doing (because we are so afraid to discover that, in reality, many of our concerns are meaningless!). And yet, sooner or later we will have to face this reality; hence we must learn to resolve our fears.
