Something to Keep Working On During This Easter Season
We're heading for work during this second week of our glorious Easter Season. The rigors of Lent may be behind us, but let's not forget the whole point of our special prayers, fasting, and almsgiving: Forget self.
Applying yourself sincerely and diligently to your Lenten discipline should include the idea of forgetting yourself. It's critically important. Otherwise, we run the danger of feeding our egos. We start thinking how "holy" we are when we say special prayers, attend daily Mass, pray the Stations of the Cross, or the myriad other devotions that can supplement our normal routine. This applies to fasting and almsgiving as well.
When we fast, especially if we were able to practice special mortifications during the work day, our fasting can help us develop self-control. We're less subject to the whims of our senses, and thus we grow in maturity as men. Rather than always seeking enjoyment or pleasure, the practice of self-denial weens us from the temptations of the senses. Instead of always avoiding any discomfort, never mind pain, we learn to suck it up and offer it up. It's all good - as long as we forget self. You see, self-denial works wonders to the extent that the denial helps to take the focus off "self." Otherwise, we forget that self-control comes to us by the grace of God. It's His handiwork, not ours. Do you really think that you'd overcome dependencies and temptations and the constant search for the soft, easy way of life, without His grace. I hope not.
As for almsgiving, let's recall that it includes acts of charity. Therefore it consists of giving of our substance, and giving of ourselves. Really being generous to others includes both. Writing a check to some charitable organization is OK, but it can be impersonal. Helping out someone we know in need gets us a bit more personally involved. Being charitable to those in our lives, including co-workers who really get on our nerves, takes an even stronger personal effort. But, here again, we need to take the focus off ourselves. It's God's grace that helps our charity flow. If we don't get that, we run the risk of giving ourselves far more credit than we deserve.
Back at work during this second week of the Easter Season, we want to remember all this as we go about our business. Maybe we're not "piling on" those mortifications as we might have during Lent. Maybe we're not praying the Stations of the Cross. Maybe we're not quite as generous as we may have been during Lent. But perhaps we are reminding ourselves that the end of Lent doesn't signal the end of our prayer life, self-denial, or charity. If anything, it could - really should - signal the beginning of the regular habit of applying prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in our every day life.
So as we work this day for the greater glory of God, we pray that He takes up more space in our thoughts, words, and actions. We want to perform our daily tasks to the best of our ability for Him, rather than simply to get a good review by our boss. We're making the effort to treat those around us with charity not so we can be seen as a "nice guy," but because we see in everyone the Face of Him Who showed us the real depth and breadth of the virtue of charity by dying for us.
On the other hand, if we're not quite there yet, if we're still stuck on ourselves, we won't despair. Rather we'll remind ourselves that all the good in us comes from God, while all the bad - well, you should be able to finish this thought on your own if you're a serious Catholic who knows his Faith. Besides, it's really not reasonable, no matter how diligent you were in your Lenten discipline, to expect a sort of "final solution" to your selfishness. If you've made progress, great. If not, or if it's so little it's not worth noting, then join the club. The decision to, as St. Paul tells us, put off that "old man" and put on a "new man" in Christ typically only starts the ball rolling. Don't expect instant results. The decision may take an instant, but the actual process can take years, if not our whole lives. But that's OK. Knowing that, we can pray for the grace to persist, bolstered by our understanding of the promise of His Resurrection. That should give us all we need to keep at it.
Applying yourself sincerely and diligently to your Lenten discipline should include the idea of forgetting yourself. It's critically important. Otherwise, we run the danger of feeding our egos. We start thinking how "holy" we are when we say special prayers, attend daily Mass, pray the Stations of the Cross, or the myriad other devotions that can supplement our normal routine. This applies to fasting and almsgiving as well.
When we fast, especially if we were able to practice special mortifications during the work day, our fasting can help us develop self-control. We're less subject to the whims of our senses, and thus we grow in maturity as men. Rather than always seeking enjoyment or pleasure, the practice of self-denial weens us from the temptations of the senses. Instead of always avoiding any discomfort, never mind pain, we learn to suck it up and offer it up. It's all good - as long as we forget self. You see, self-denial works wonders to the extent that the denial helps to take the focus off "self." Otherwise, we forget that self-control comes to us by the grace of God. It's His handiwork, not ours. Do you really think that you'd overcome dependencies and temptations and the constant search for the soft, easy way of life, without His grace. I hope not.
As for almsgiving, let's recall that it includes acts of charity. Therefore it consists of giving of our substance, and giving of ourselves. Really being generous to others includes both. Writing a check to some charitable organization is OK, but it can be impersonal. Helping out someone we know in need gets us a bit more personally involved. Being charitable to those in our lives, including co-workers who really get on our nerves, takes an even stronger personal effort. But, here again, we need to take the focus off ourselves. It's God's grace that helps our charity flow. If we don't get that, we run the risk of giving ourselves far more credit than we deserve.
Back at work during this second week of the Easter Season, we want to remember all this as we go about our business. Maybe we're not "piling on" those mortifications as we might have during Lent. Maybe we're not praying the Stations of the Cross. Maybe we're not quite as generous as we may have been during Lent. But perhaps we are reminding ourselves that the end of Lent doesn't signal the end of our prayer life, self-denial, or charity. If anything, it could - really should - signal the beginning of the regular habit of applying prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in our every day life.
So as we work this day for the greater glory of God, we pray that He takes up more space in our thoughts, words, and actions. We want to perform our daily tasks to the best of our ability for Him, rather than simply to get a good review by our boss. We're making the effort to treat those around us with charity not so we can be seen as a "nice guy," but because we see in everyone the Face of Him Who showed us the real depth and breadth of the virtue of charity by dying for us.
On the other hand, if we're not quite there yet, if we're still stuck on ourselves, we won't despair. Rather we'll remind ourselves that all the good in us comes from God, while all the bad - well, you should be able to finish this thought on your own if you're a serious Catholic who knows his Faith. Besides, it's really not reasonable, no matter how diligent you were in your Lenten discipline, to expect a sort of "final solution" to your selfishness. If you've made progress, great. If not, or if it's so little it's not worth noting, then join the club. The decision to, as St. Paul tells us, put off that "old man" and put on a "new man" in Christ typically only starts the ball rolling. Don't expect instant results. The decision may take an instant, but the actual process can take years, if not our whole lives. But that's OK. Knowing that, we can pray for the grace to persist, bolstered by our understanding of the promise of His Resurrection. That should give us all we need to keep at it.
Happy Easter!
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