A Laetare Sunday Thought About Faults to Start the Week Off Right
The 4th Sunday of Lent comes to us as "Laetare" Sunday. The priest can wear rose-colored vestments instead of purple. In the midst of the 40 days of Lent, we're encouraged to look down the road a bit to the coming joy of Easter. If we've been persistently practicing our special prayers, penance, and almsgiving during this Holy Season, it's a welcome respite in the midst of our Lenten discipline.
Sometimes we need a break when we're hammering away at something day in and day out. Our work can be that way. Our spiritual "work" during Lent can as well.
Last Sunday we saw a man put in a good day's work only to have it all unravel on him. The effort was one thing; the results quite another. That's how it goes sometimes. I've learned this lesson many times in my own work. Maybe you have too.
But whether you've experienced what we saw last week in your daily toil, I suspect we've all had that experience in our spiritual "work." It may especially jar us if we've been persistent in our Lenten discipline without seeing any results. Father Lekeux has some wise words for us here. He builds on the lesson we learned in last Sunday's post.
“You see, God, the wisest of Masters, wants good servants. When you have put in a good day’s work, He allows it to be undone, as it were; it’s almost as if you had done nothing. You may awaken some morning and discover that you have more faults than you ever realized before. It’s a sort of paternal trick He is playing on you. It’s so you won’t be without work the next day, and so that you can merit. He waits to see whether you are going to pout over it. Will you grumble and at the end of three days throw in the towel? What a lack of common sense that would be! Begin all over. That’s what God wants you to do. You’re being paid by the hour. Your good will is the wage scale. Whether there is a lot of dirt or not, whether your faults return or disappear, that is the Master’s business. As far as you’re concerned, work, and put your heart and soul in it. Do your best, and don’t worry about results. Believe me, God will be pleased. Incidentally, He’ll increase your wages too. You have more faults than others? Good. You will be able to merit more than others. You have just as many faults as ever? So much the better, if you’re struggling against them. In that event you’re sure of work for the future. Wouldn’t life be boring without our faults? How would we show our good will? In critical times, so many unemployed would be delighted to accept any kind of work, as long as they were paid for it. Your faults are your employment. You are always paid. There is never any layoff. The faults God allows are a great means of sanctification. But what is needed is the right attitude. We must understand how to use them and have the common sense to profit from them.
"...Our faults keep us on the alert and require effort. They train us in patience, fidelity, and generosity. A great harvest of merits can be gleaned each day. They are the scene of action for the exercise of our good will. … Our faults keep us humble. Without humility every effort for holiness is vain. They disgust us, detach us from ourselves, teach us not to measure our progress and the extent of our sanctification so much, to lean on God more than on ourselves, and to abandon ourselves to Him in all that concerns us.” - Fr. Martial Lekeux, O.F.M
Isn't this ingenious, characterizing our faults as "our employment"? Our failure to rid ourselves of our faults no longer haunts us as a daunting, discouraging reality, Without excusing those faults, Father simply turns them into a means to achieve holiness - albeit in the slow, ponderous fashion most of us experience.
Sometimes we need a break when we're hammering away at something day in and day out. Our work can be that way. Our spiritual "work" during Lent can as well.
Last Sunday we saw a man put in a good day's work only to have it all unravel on him. The effort was one thing; the results quite another. That's how it goes sometimes. I've learned this lesson many times in my own work. Maybe you have too.
But whether you've experienced what we saw last week in your daily toil, I suspect we've all had that experience in our spiritual "work." It may especially jar us if we've been persistent in our Lenten discipline without seeing any results. Father Lekeux has some wise words for us here. He builds on the lesson we learned in last Sunday's post.
“You see, God, the wisest of Masters, wants good servants. When you have put in a good day’s work, He allows it to be undone, as it were; it’s almost as if you had done nothing. You may awaken some morning and discover that you have more faults than you ever realized before. It’s a sort of paternal trick He is playing on you. It’s so you won’t be without work the next day, and so that you can merit. He waits to see whether you are going to pout over it. Will you grumble and at the end of three days throw in the towel? What a lack of common sense that would be! Begin all over. That’s what God wants you to do. You’re being paid by the hour. Your good will is the wage scale. Whether there is a lot of dirt or not, whether your faults return or disappear, that is the Master’s business. As far as you’re concerned, work, and put your heart and soul in it. Do your best, and don’t worry about results. Believe me, God will be pleased. Incidentally, He’ll increase your wages too. You have more faults than others? Good. You will be able to merit more than others. You have just as many faults as ever? So much the better, if you’re struggling against them. In that event you’re sure of work for the future. Wouldn’t life be boring without our faults? How would we show our good will? In critical times, so many unemployed would be delighted to accept any kind of work, as long as they were paid for it. Your faults are your employment. You are always paid. There is never any layoff. The faults God allows are a great means of sanctification. But what is needed is the right attitude. We must understand how to use them and have the common sense to profit from them.
"...Our faults keep us on the alert and require effort. They train us in patience, fidelity, and generosity. A great harvest of merits can be gleaned each day. They are the scene of action for the exercise of our good will. … Our faults keep us humble. Without humility every effort for holiness is vain. They disgust us, detach us from ourselves, teach us not to measure our progress and the extent of our sanctification so much, to lean on God more than on ourselves, and to abandon ourselves to Him in all that concerns us.” - Fr. Martial Lekeux, O.F.M
Isn't this ingenious, characterizing our faults as "our employment"? Our failure to rid ourselves of our faults no longer haunts us as a daunting, discouraging reality, Without excusing those faults, Father simply turns them into a means to achieve holiness - albeit in the slow, ponderous fashion most of us experience.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee,
Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
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