4 Principle Causes of Our Discontent

4 Principle Causes of Our Discontent

Perhaps you can identify with this experience.  You repent, you pray, you recommit your life, go to church and confession more frequently.  Yet that lingering anxiety and discontent with your life persists.  What is going on?  You conclude you have got to go further, go deeper with your faith.  Invariably and ultimately, you find that this is what is at the root of your discontent yet still:  your tendency toward self-centeredness, your enviousness toward others, your jealousy of what others have and what you want for yourself, your greed for more of which you strive.  I love Christian psychology.  To this writer, it is cognitive behavioral therapy and the way of Jesus all wrapped up into one.

Let’s see.  

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy [CBT] is based on the notion that happiness cannot exist without decision making within one’s own system of beliefs and values.  For a Catholic, that value system is rooted in the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the following of our/His Father’s commandments.  Well, first and foremost, being overly concerned with oneself, one’s interests while at the same time disregarding the interests of others is considered sinful and in opposition to His teachings.  Self-centeredness falls into the area of both self-interest of flesh and ambition which cannot please God. It may lead a sinner to failing to care for neighbor, and be quick to judge, which are both an action against God’s authority.  Further, our self-centeredness, an excessive focus on self can lead to self-destruction.     It is obvious then that God does not rule the sinner's heart.  Talk about discontent.  Conceit, not humility, is its primary characteristic.  

Discontent over someone else’s possessions, qualities or luck is envy.  How is it that she won the lottery, got promoted, got that job, lives in that house?  And how do they get away with what they do - those who lead a life of malice, those deviants, defrauders, and deceivers?  Sadness and resentment results.  It can lead to our own boastfulness, compensating for what we do not possess; our own anger and violence out of frustration from our efforts.  Yet the discontented Christian may still preach Christ even from envy.  They are wicked gossips and hypocrites.  Envy just can’t make them happy.

1 Peter 2:1-2

"Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation."

Similarly, jealousy is a feeling of hostility towards a rival who may have an advantage.  It can bring on suspicion, rage, fear and humiliation, because the sinner desired that advantage.  Jealousy is never clearer than in situations of romance. or family: boy/girl relations, or even sibling relations.  Being a threat to our  self-esteem is what brings on the concomitant insecurity or fear, it is no wonder such a feeling can engender such strong emotions.  It is living in the joy of Jesus that keeps us from envy and jealousy for He calls us away from such tendencies.  We are to live in His promises, blessings and graces, not someone else’s.

Greed stems from both envy and jealousy.  It is an excessive desire for something such as material gain, status or power; usually what another has.  You grab for it and yet you can’t have it.  This won’t make you happy but certainly discontented.  It is one of the seven deadly sins.  Greed teaches you that you never have enough, yet desire abundance.  The opposite of greed is generosity, one of the seven virtues.

So to be consistent with the ways of Jesus is often times in contrast to ways of the values of this world.  Peace won’t be with you when self-centered, envious, jealous or greedy.  Decide which of the two beliefs and value systems are and only then will contentment arrive; ie.  Christian CBT.  When discontent arrives, search for how we fall short of our Christian call.  For that angst in the stomach or heart is actually the contradiction between your behaviors and your Christian values and beliefs.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 

"But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

Source:  

Baglino, Michael J.  The Dr. B. Reader on the Ologies:   Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology.  New York:  Amazon Professional Publishers, 2023.

The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen.  N. Palm Beach, FL:  Blue Sparrow, 2020.