Comparing Work and the Battle of Our Spiritual Life - Part 4

Today we can take a valuable lesson from our work and apply it to the battle of our spiritual life. Just think about those times you had to tackle a really difficult task, one that required persistent attention and action. Think especially of those tasks that required some skill or talent you didn't have in abundance or simply ran against your grain. You might have put off tackling it for a spell, but at some point you have to bite the bullet and get at it.

An example from my own business: bookkeeping. Of all the many tasks required to run my business, bookkeeping ranks in the "necessary evil" category. In the past I'd put it off, or do whenever I could to "squeeze it in," resulting in sloppy bookkeeping, leading to the occasional stressful, last-minute scramble to straighten things out. I tried a couple of software packages recommended to me to automate things somewhat, but they proved to be complicated, even painful, and only added to the stress and procrastination. Then, after one too many scrambles, I decided to intently search for a bookkeeping system that suited my temperament and abilities. I found it. With a dose of willpower fostered by prayer, and after applying myself diligently over time, I'm on top of bookkeeping (mostly). Now it's neither painful nor stressful.

Father Michel explains how our diligent pursuit of sacrifice and mortification in our spiritual lives, while painful at first, may prove to be less so much so over time. But while we might rejoice when we "tame" a difficult and painful task in our work, sometimes in our spiritual lives we're oddly not so happy when our efforts "feel" easier and less painful.

    “Let us rest assured, too, that we are very much mistaken, if we think that the difficulty which we experience in self-mortification, and in performing our duties for the love of God, will continue as vivid and painful as we find it in the beginning. Experience teaches us that, on merely natural principles, when we frequently perform any action, or through the assistance of divine grace accustom ourselves to act from good motives, we contract a habit of doing so which becomes easier with every repetition. Whatever difficulty at first existed gradually diminishes and finally disappears. Let us only, for a while, do violence to ourselves, and perform our actions with fidelity and exactness as to time and place, and we shall soon find that we do them, as it were, instinctively, and the religious motive seems to present itself of its own accord. So true is this that some scrupulous souls are apt to become troubled and wrongly imagine that they have no merit, because they no longer feel the sacrifice or the suffering in the duty which had cost them so much at first. They overlook the fact that it is the supernatural motive, under the instigation of grace, which gives merit to the action, and not its difficulty. Religion, moreover, teaches us that God rewards the efforts we make to overcome ourselves, by imparting graces which not only lessen difficulties, but even cause us to derive pleasure from what was at first so painful. And even though the trial continues for a longer time, He will never suffer it to surpass our strength, aided by the grace which He has provided, and which we can always obtain through prayer. Rely on this promise, for it can never fail. Let us never dwell upon the uncertainty of our perseverance, without also remembering God’s assurance that He will help us and reward us; this will strengthen us and reanimate our confidence.”

Let's learn a lesson from our work. It's perfectly natural that a hard task becomes easier over time when you diligently apply your efforts. If part of the spiritual battle you wage every day includes acts of mortification - and it should - don't be put off if, over time, you "no longer feel the sacrifice or the suffering." (Even my bookkeeping has become, on occasion, a source of pleasure - like when I print out a neat, accurate P&L each month, or can easily access a past income or expense transaction with a few taps on my touch pad.) As Father Michel reminds us, "God reward the efforts we make to overcome ourselves, by imparting graces which not only lessen difficulties, but even cause us to derive pleasure from what was at first so painful." So rather than fret when your sacrifices don't "feel" so hard, just rejoice that Our Lord sees fit to provide some blessed relief.