Comparing Our Work and the Battle of Our Spiritual Life - Part 3

Today's comments from Fr. Michel remind me of the financial battle in which so many of us are engaged. Depending on the person, their state of life, and their age, that financial battle consists of one or more of the following: pay down debt, build up an emergency reserve; if you have children, pay for college; and (single or married with or without children) having enough to eventually retire. If it's not one, it's one or more of the others. And that's not even counting the natural desire to provide reasonably well, if not amply, for everyday needs: food, clothing, and shelter, along with the occasional luxury even a modest, temperate man might desire.

The fact is, too few of us address our financial state of affairs prudently. Even as we work each day to provide the means, a/k/a money, we need to plan properly, many of us simply fail to plan. And as the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Why is this so common? Personal and professional experience points to the same psychological and spiritual reasons that Fr. Michel outlines today.

    “I am quite aware that could we foresee all the difficulties and trials that must be encountered in the service of God, taken collectively for the space of a long life, we might well feel appalled. But is this the way in which we are called upon to encounter the trials of a Christian life? Our temptations and trials generally meet us separately; today we have one enemy to combat, tomorrow another, according to the occasion. If there are some that again and again have to be met and overcome, there are others that return but seldom. Against the former we must guard ourselves in an especial manner; against the latter we must prepare ourselves by frequent exercise of the love of God. It would surely evince great pusillanimity to be afraid to resist an enemy that opposes us singly, and grows strong only in proportion as we show ourselves to be weak. Tremble at his approach and you are overcome; but resist him, invoking God’s assistance, and you are sure to conquer. Never consider collectively what is to be presented to you separately. We have only to answer for the present, and therefore to torment one’s self about the uncertain future is folly. Such conduct is really going in advance of temptation, or, in other words, seeking it; it is laying snares for one’s own destruction. Why should we suffer in imagination that which we may never have to suffer in reality? ‘Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’ To expose one’s self to temptation is contrary alike to religion and to Christian prudence. If, then, a person does violence to himself for the love of God, and in the hope of reward – if, at any trial to which he is exposed, he occupies himself exclusively with it, and thinks only how he will derive from it the greatest benefit – he will easily undergo them all successively, by the grace of our Lord, and with great merit to himself.
    “A person in religious life feels a repugnance for the yoke and restraint of obedience and regularity. Suppose, instead of overcoming himself on each occasion, he begins to consider the difficulty of a whole life passed in such constraint; his courage sinks at the prospect and he is ready to despair. But let him only look at it as the restraint of a day, or half a day, or only in connection with the present duty; half the difficulty vanishes, and he finds his strength is fully equal to it. And, indeed, it is frequently but a momentary trial, and the trouble ceases when the determination is firmly taken.

Father focuses on the spiritual life. But you'll see that it's much the same for our battle at work to provide for our financial needs. For example, you've got too much debt: student, mortgage, credit cards - sometimes all three. If it's a lot, it can easily seem impossible to pay off. Another example might be the family with four, six, eight, or more children where the mother stays home and spends her time without pay working to run the household and care for the children: How do you make enough money to meet everyday expenses, never mind big items like college education, ?

If you're Catholic, you know the answer would be an abundance of faith and hope, helping you to trust in God. But that's usually easier said than done. Unless your job pays so handsomely that money's no problem, you'll benefit from a careful reading of Father Michel's remarks. So maybe read them again slowly and think about what he's saying. Note especially the importance of taking one day at a time.