A Summer Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right

Summer's here. We've had our first heat wave already - with more to come. In the Northeast a heatwave means not only hot, but humid as well. Never could understand folks who look forward to this sort of weather, but they're out there. Better out there than in here.

Of course, folks in Southern Florida probably laugh at a complaint about Northeast-style hot and humid. They're in the thick of it for most of the summer down there. And the humidity's even worse. (Hard to fathom, but I've been there and it's true. How did people live with that before there was air conditioning?)

So what's all this got to do with Sunday? Nothing really. It's just that when heat and humidity close in, even when I'm sequestered in our A/C cooled home, I slow down a bit. And sometimes that slowing down makes me a bit lazy. And when I'm a bit lazy, I'm less inclined to take any initiative. And that lack of initiative might - might - include my Sunday special attention to God. 

Hate to admit this. But since God knows exactly what I'm thinking anyway, It's not like I'm risking offending Him. He already knows this. As for you knowing it...well, maybe you know just what I'm talking about and have found yourself in a similar spot. If so, maybe we can both just move on to something that even oppressive heat and lack of initiative won't undermine. It's a selection from some solid Catholic spiritual writing. If it seems to require strict attention, well, just give it that. If your lack of initiative and lazy streak fights you, press on. Don't just give up. Seriously, anyone with even a modicum of backbone can manage this. Here goes:

“It is God’s plan that, here and in Eternity, our lives be lived with the Holy Ghost. He is our Great Familiar, our Great Lover. For that reason we ought to know all we can about Him. But we, and that means the generality of men, have not bothered much about Him, save with a kind of lip-service, as we toss off the words of the Sign of the Cross, or rattle off the sublime prayer, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the holy Ghost,” as a kind of postscript to a decade of the Rosary.

“When St. Paul came to Ephesus, he asked some of the new converts: ‘Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?’ and they had to answer him: ‘We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost.’…They were not to blame for their ignorance; for up to that moment they had not been taught properly. But today it is different. After two thousand years of Christianity, all men should know better. But, sad to say, there are even today millions who never heard of the Holy Ghost, and what is more, do not want to hear about Him. Anyway, and this is true of many Catholics, if they’ve heard of Him, they do not concern themselves much about improving the acquaintance. As Leo XIII says, in his wonderful Encyclical on the Holy Ghost – Divinum Illud (May 4, 1897): ‘At least there are certainly many who are very deficient in their knowledge of Him. They frequently use His name in their religious practices, but their faith is involved in much darkness.’ I am afraid that means a lot of us. We give our intellectual assent to all the truths of the Faith, but somehow we do not put some of them to work. We are not heretics, thank God, but we tuck away some of our beliefs as if they were treasures too rich to be used in daily life, gold plates too valuable to hold the daily loaf of bread. Perhaps this hands-off attitude is due to a mistaken sense of reverence, or to a lack of education, or to the neglect of trying to understand, so far as we can, the relations of God and the soul. But if we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that it is plain ignorance. We have not tried to understand and we have not listened to the teaching of the Church. We are not heretics, but this is the attitude that fosters heresy, a cock-sure conviction of one’s own ignorant judgment, and the refusal to give ear to the voice of the infallible Church.” (Father Hugh Blunt, 1943)

One of the things I like about this passage is the reference to "gold plates." Back in the day, when people actually kept Sunday holy and families got together for a "Sunday dinner," some folks took out their best dishes to make things special. So the passage connects with us in at least that one way on this summer Sunday. But there's more to connect.

Continuing with the family get-together/Sunday-best theme, if we want our lives to be lived with the Holy Spirit - and who wouldn't - we might need to be a better host. Anyone in the state of grace already will find the Holy Ghost "living" with them. But Father's comments tell us we need to do more. We need to get out special spiritual dishes by taking some time to get more familiar with this Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. 

Note that Father Blunt quotes from Leo XIII's encyclical about the Holy Ghost. Here's an excerpt from that encyclical that bluntly (pun intended) puts forth why we need to continually become more familiar with and grow closer to the Holy Spirit:

"...we ought to pray to and invoke the Holy Spirit, for each one of us greatly needs His protection and His help. The more a man is deficient in wisdom, weak in strength, borne down with trouble, prone to sin, so ought he the more to fly to Him who is the never-ceasing fount of light, strength, consolation, and holiness. And chiefly that first requisite of man, the forgiveness of sins, must be sought for from Him..."

We who are not already canonized saints should get this in a heartbeat.

(If you want to read the whole encyclical, you can find it HERE. It's not long and is written in a relatively simple, easy style. Even if you're feeling that lack of initiative combined with a bit of laziness, I think you can manage it - and it'll be quite worthwhile.)

So despite the sometimes lethargic spirit wrought by a touch of laziness caused by the summer heat, we've been able to make some progress on this summer Sunday. Now let's get down to becoming more familiar with, and thereby drawing closer to, the Holy Spirit. He's waiting for us to do just that.

Happy Sunday!