Walking With Our Lord to Calvary During Passiontide - Part 2

Perhaps our last post has assisted us in walking with Our Lord to Calvary during Passiontide. We found a boost from the words of Father John Grou. Today, we turn back to Father for what could be a bigger boost. 

Why should we need a bigger boost? Well, the fact is that despite our knowing God stands ready to give us the help, the grace we need in facing any difficulty, suffering, and temptation we might face, there are times when we may feel as if He isn't really paying attention to us. Or maybe we know He hears us, but wonder why He seems to be leaving us hanging out there alone, on our own.

You may have had the experience of wondering whether God will fulfill His promise of never abandoning us. Many times, this experience serves as a test or our patience and endurance. We know, and really do expect, that God will "come through" for us at some point. We just wish He would speed up His response a bit.

Sometimes, though, we can be tested in a manner that reaches extremes. Having experienced this a few times, I know how close we can come to real doubt, even loss of faith. Why God allows this remains a mystery. But unless we actually reject God (a terrifying thought), He will eventually prove His love for us, even if it is in the simple granting of the "patience of a saint."

Here's Father Grou's take on all this:

“A virtue that has never been tried does not deserve the name of virtue…The effect of every temptation against purity, for example, or against faith, or against hope, is to strengthen these virtues in our soul and carry them to the highest degree. The effect of anxieties, of weariness in doing good, of disgust at everything, of evident repugnance to duty, of extreme desolation, so that all feelings of grace are withdrawn from us, and God seems to have forsaken us – the effect of all this is to purify our love, to increase our courage, our fidelity, and our perseverance. The effect of calumnies, vexations, and persecutions is to raise us above all human respect, and at the same time to take away from us a certain good opinion of ourselves which the praise of men nourishes in us without our perceiving it. Finally, the general effect of all temptations is to detach us from the things of this world, to humble us in our own eyes, to inspire us with more trust in God, and to draw us into closer union with Him.” (Father John Grou, S.J., 1731-1803)

First we see that virtue requires work. We build virtue through habit. Developing any habit takes work. For example, if we're not always honest, we won't magically make honesty a virtue of ours unless we relentlessly work at it. Each and every time we are dishonest or less than completely honest, we catch ourselves, figure out why we responded as we did, and resolve not to allow this to happen again - over and over and over - until it becomes an ingrained habit.

Then Father lists items that help to purify our love, increase our courage, faithfulness, and perseverance: 

• Anxieties
• Weariness in doing good
• Disgust of everything
• Repugnance of duty
• Extreme desolation
  

What a list! Father doesn't pull punches. But such bluntness might be just what the doctor ordered. While not common, everyday issues, I've encountered each of these at some point in my life. What about you?

Then we find calumnies, vexations, persecutions. I suspect none of us have escaped these. Difficulty as they may be, they help us deal with human respect - the excessive regard of the opinions of others. The flip side is, of course, our being puffed up by the praise of others.

If we're buffeted by any or all of these, and accept them as a variety of cauterization and ointments from our Divine Physician, over time we will - with God's grace - attain a level of detachment from the things of this world. Combine this with an increase in humility and trust in God and we stand a chance of growing closer to God - the entire point of our brief span of life on this earth. 

Passiontide can turn our hearts and minds to the Passion and Death of Our Lord - if we open up those hearts and minds and give Him our attention - even as we work, and if only for a few moments during the work day. 

We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee. Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.