The Inner Life of the Soul And Our Work During the Easter Season

This week we turn to that wonderful collection of essays for every Sunday (and some feast days) during the Liturgical Year, The Inner Life of the Soul. (We have, in the past, commented on each essay for each Sunday of the Year. If you haven't done so yet, get a copy of this book and follow it throughout the year. It will be an exercise well-worth the effort.)

For now, we turn to the essay for the Second Week of Easter. It will help us to ground ourselves more firmly in the Easter Season as we go about our work.

Christ is risen indeed, and the joy-bells are ringing, and the Church and nature both re glad and gay; but our holy Mother cannot long forget, as all true hearts cannot, that her best Beloved, her triumphant Spouse, once suffered and died for her." Dearly beloved ! " she cries to her faithful children," Christ suffered for us, leaving to you an example that ye should follow His steps." And then she goes on to remind us of His sinless earthly life, — how He endured pain and disgrace while living, — how He endured agony and shame when dying, — with what guilelessness, patience, pardon, and meekness, bearing our loathsome sins in His own body on the tree.

As we've recalled in the past, the joy of the Easter Season does not preclude the mortification that a Catholic should practice all year-round. It does not mitigate the importance of examining our conscience, being contrite for our sins and getting to Confession when possible.

Here are a number of simple, easily accessible ways we can continue our daily mortification at work: Delay eating breakfast or lunch after saying grace. A minute or two will do. Control any tendency to criticize others. While a critique of work product may be part of your responsibility as a supervisor of others, that does not entail making unkind or uncalled for remarks about an individual that really are not related to the work they produce. An especially beneficial mortification might be going out of your way to be charitable, cheerful, helpful to someone whose demeanor or attitude particularly grates on your nerves. These are just a few.

When we become aware of thoughts, words, or actions that might be sinful, we might quickly note these in a kind of mini-examination of conscience and say an Act of Contrition right then and there. It only takes minutes, if that long. Then go about your business.

The next passage particularly caught my attention. When you read it, think of how far most of us have separated ourselves from a sincere, heartfelt practice of our Catholic Religion. These words, written in the early 20th century, over 100 years ago, remind us that Catholics once participated in and were deeply and personally affected by their attendance at and participation in the Liturgy. It moved them such that it was a bit jarring to face just an "ordinary" day at work.

We have been engrossed of late with the beautiful offices of Holy Week, and have been fain to cry with Peter : — “ Let us build here for ourselves tabernacles, and dwell in this dream of delight with our Lord forever ! ” The out- side, everyday world of business, of study, of home cares, has seemed cold and bleak to us, compared with the divine loveliness of the sanctuary and the nearness of the Sacra- mental Presence of Jesus Christ. For many and many a devout soul, it is hard to take up ordinary life again ; and there is a supernatural, a spiritual cause for this, which is very pleasing to Almighty God.

Would that this devoted practice and attitude might return to us all some day! 

What has caused so many of us to be so far removed from such effects of pious devotions? Perhaps our Liturgy has become "ordinary-ized" - some would say dumbed-down - since the changes imposed after Vatican II. They no longer penetrate our senses or our souls as they once did. Could it be our embrace of the attitudes and behaviors of the world? Catholics once stood apart from what was common to others. These could be simple differences like not eating meat on Friday; or bowing our heads slightly at the mention of the Holy Name of Jesus; or making the sign of the Cross when passing a church or seeing a hearse drive past us. Ideally, those differences manifested themselves in language and actions that were at least a bit less crude, that would never use Our Lord's Name in vain, that refrained (on the part of men) from making lustful comments about women, etc. We were never perfect; but if we at least made the effort to communicate our love for God and respect for our neighbor.

Such differences would be noticed in the workplace. Are they now?

This could be a worthy question to consider as we work our way through this Easter Season. Depending on an assessment of our personal language and behavior, we may find a fertile field to plant the seeds of Catholic example to all with whom we work or contact in the course of the day.

We're not done with this wonderful essay. More next time. For now...

Happy Easter!