A Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
It's the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Note the emphasis on Easter. It's important to remind ourselves that we're in the Easter Season.
Now that you've been reminded, it's even more important to remind ourselves that the Easter Season isn't just about remembering Our Lord's Resurrection. Among other things, it's about the fact that He rose from the dead to show us what's in store for us if keep at it. By "keep at it," I mean at the very least obeying the Ten Commandments, even better, striving to grow closer to God. By "striving," I mean not just going through the motions, but really, REALLY, desiring UNION with God.
If the idea of union with God seems a bit beyond your pay grade, that's okay. I thought so too, when I stumbled on this idea in the course of my spiritual reading. My first reaction was, "Union with God? Me? I'm no saint, never mind some sort of mystic." It's just the normal reaction of a normal guy who's aware of his perfectly imperfect spiritual condition. But, over time, even this less-than-sainted-typical-sinner understood that, REALLY, union with God was the primary goal of our spiritual lives.
Now, I'm still kind of "afraid" of this idea of union with God. Intellectually I know I should want this; but emotionally I kind of pull back at times. So on this fourth Sunday of Easter I wanted to share something I recently read by Fr. Daniel Considine that helped me understand this fear a little better. This passage discusses "diffidence," i.e., lack of confidence in making a commitment to sanctity. You'll see the reference to being "afraid of sanctity" as you read through it.
"We are timid, we feel ourselves unworthy of God's love: we think of our past sins, we hesitate, we shrink back- and what is the cause of all this? PRIDE.
We are afraid of sanctity because we are afraid of failure, afraid of cutting a sorry figure. But if we become convinced that we can do nothing of ourselves, but that God can and will look after us, what is there to be afraid of? Do we imagine that we can attain holiness by our own exertions? Is not God powerful enough to make a saint, even of such a poor creature as ourself?
'But our past sins make us tremble.' We see how we have deserved hell. But have we not been to Confession? Do we believe God has forgiven us? What a poor compliment to the good God to think of Him as a hard taskmaster raking up old faults at every turn. We talk of forgiving and forgetting. In the case of our poor fellow-creatures such language is metaphorical. Nevertheless, it is literally true with regard to God in the sense that a sin forgiven by Him is wiped out as if it had never existed.
Even to excite contrition in our hearts, it is not a good thing to ponder over our past sins. When we fall, let us say: 'Well, what better could I expect of such a poor thing as I am? Were it not for God's goodness I should have fallen still lower.' Then get up and go on as if nothing had happened. God is probably more pleased by the acknowledgement of our weakness than He was displeased by the fault.
Here of course we are speaking of those souls who are God's friends and who would rather die than become His enemies by deliberate mortal sin: of those souls who are too often inclined to worry over their sins of human frailty in a way which-if they were conscious of it-would be an indignity to the infinite generosity of the Heart of Our Lord.
Gradually as the soul grows more accustomed to trusting itself to God and learns by experience how He takes care of it, it will lose its fear and become more at home with God. As a rule, God delights in giving consolation. The spirit of God works rapidly in souls unless He meets with opposition."
Father identifies "Pride" as the cause of our diffidence, our fear of sanctity. In recent posts we focused on the role our Lenten disciplines could play in our forgetting self. Pride has no chance if we take the focus off of ourselves. If we can do that, over time our thoughts, words, and deeds re-focus towards God and neighbor - where they should be.
Our Lord's suffering and death on the Cross saved us from sin. Part of that salvation from sin includes saving us from ourselves - our inordinate concern and focus on us. Then His Resurrection tells us not to fear death. With ourselves and our fear out of the way, on this Fourth Sunday of Easter the way is open for us draw ever closer to Him. May the graces that He provides during this glorious Easter Season inflame us with the desire to be united with Him forever.
Now that you've been reminded, it's even more important to remind ourselves that the Easter Season isn't just about remembering Our Lord's Resurrection. Among other things, it's about the fact that He rose from the dead to show us what's in store for us if keep at it. By "keep at it," I mean at the very least obeying the Ten Commandments, even better, striving to grow closer to God. By "striving," I mean not just going through the motions, but really, REALLY, desiring UNION with God.
If the idea of union with God seems a bit beyond your pay grade, that's okay. I thought so too, when I stumbled on this idea in the course of my spiritual reading. My first reaction was, "Union with God? Me? I'm no saint, never mind some sort of mystic." It's just the normal reaction of a normal guy who's aware of his perfectly imperfect spiritual condition. But, over time, even this less-than-sainted-typical-sinner understood that, REALLY, union with God was the primary goal of our spiritual lives.
Now, I'm still kind of "afraid" of this idea of union with God. Intellectually I know I should want this; but emotionally I kind of pull back at times. So on this fourth Sunday of Easter I wanted to share something I recently read by Fr. Daniel Considine that helped me understand this fear a little better. This passage discusses "diffidence," i.e., lack of confidence in making a commitment to sanctity. You'll see the reference to being "afraid of sanctity" as you read through it.
"We are timid, we feel ourselves unworthy of God's love: we think of our past sins, we hesitate, we shrink back- and what is the cause of all this? PRIDE.
We are afraid of sanctity because we are afraid of failure, afraid of cutting a sorry figure. But if we become convinced that we can do nothing of ourselves, but that God can and will look after us, what is there to be afraid of? Do we imagine that we can attain holiness by our own exertions? Is not God powerful enough to make a saint, even of such a poor creature as ourself?
'But our past sins make us tremble.' We see how we have deserved hell. But have we not been to Confession? Do we believe God has forgiven us? What a poor compliment to the good God to think of Him as a hard taskmaster raking up old faults at every turn. We talk of forgiving and forgetting. In the case of our poor fellow-creatures such language is metaphorical. Nevertheless, it is literally true with regard to God in the sense that a sin forgiven by Him is wiped out as if it had never existed.
Even to excite contrition in our hearts, it is not a good thing to ponder over our past sins. When we fall, let us say: 'Well, what better could I expect of such a poor thing as I am? Were it not for God's goodness I should have fallen still lower.' Then get up and go on as if nothing had happened. God is probably more pleased by the acknowledgement of our weakness than He was displeased by the fault.
Here of course we are speaking of those souls who are God's friends and who would rather die than become His enemies by deliberate mortal sin: of those souls who are too often inclined to worry over their sins of human frailty in a way which-if they were conscious of it-would be an indignity to the infinite generosity of the Heart of Our Lord.
Gradually as the soul grows more accustomed to trusting itself to God and learns by experience how He takes care of it, it will lose its fear and become more at home with God. As a rule, God delights in giving consolation. The spirit of God works rapidly in souls unless He meets with opposition."
Father identifies "Pride" as the cause of our diffidence, our fear of sanctity. In recent posts we focused on the role our Lenten disciplines could play in our forgetting self. Pride has no chance if we take the focus off of ourselves. If we can do that, over time our thoughts, words, and deeds re-focus towards God and neighbor - where they should be.
Our Lord's suffering and death on the Cross saved us from sin. Part of that salvation from sin includes saving us from ourselves - our inordinate concern and focus on us. Then His Resurrection tells us not to fear death. With ourselves and our fear out of the way, on this Fourth Sunday of Easter the way is open for us draw ever closer to Him. May the graces that He provides during this glorious Easter Season inflame us with the desire to be united with Him forever.
Happy Easter!
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