[Faith-Talk] Self-care, Being a Servant to God, and Mental Health in the Context of Faith

[Humberto Avila]

Hello, all, 

I hope all is well. Happy sunday. 

I just got done listening to my local Catholic mass online, and in the Cermon, today the father asked everybody in attendance, giving our Liturgical readings of the day, to always serve God, serve others, and serve no matter what it takes. In other words, put others' needs always before ours. 
I personally feel this is quite contraticting to what we are asking for instance, our employees and people in the education field to do. Also medical professionals. If we always put the needs of the neighbor before others, we can create many issues. There's a lot of burnout and compassion fatigue in my proffession. Same for nurses. Look what happened during the mere peaks of the COVID pandemic. Many folks quit their jobs weather nurses, teachers, ETC. But today, what the Priest is asking everybody to do, be a hero, love God, and always become a servant of God, is super confounding to me. I think this might even get a lot of people new to the Christian world very confused, and I feel many youth as well, especially with the many messages they get already in this crazy world.  
So, I'm wondering, for fellow Christians / Catholics, do you believe there is a way forward when it comes to the acceptance of mental health issues within our communities? Because, personally, perhaps through my experiences within my own church, given the messaging I received today, is this is going to create so much stigma amongst Church goers. What has been your experiences? 
I also think it fits perfectly for our Blind community who also tends to be more at risk for mental health issues more than sighted people, due to the discrimination, ableism, and other treatments we receive.  But I'm just wondering if there is some kind of balance to these issues?  
Thoughts? 
Happy sunday again and God bless. 

—  Humberto 
Sent from my iPhone