A Sunday Thought About Staying Spiritually Grounded

This Sunday we'll continue a thread we began during the week - how to stay spiritually grounded at work. As with the last two posts, we turn to Father Joseph Schryvers for guidance.

This passage is particularly appropriate for a Sunday. It's asking us to see ourselves in conspectu Dei - as God sees us. Too often, we get caught up in everyday life with its attractions, difficulties, pleasures and pain. Father wants us to step back and take a wider and deeper look at our life and who we are:

“First then: What is the life of man? Compared with the eternity of God it is only an instant, or rather, the infinitesimal fraction of a second. Man appears for a short time on this earth to spend a few days; like a traveler he pauses here and there on the road and finally reaches his eternity. In this vast and wondrous universe the place he occupies is very small, and the part he plays there is very insignificant; few know him, and fewer still are interested in him. The space covered by his dwelling and what he calls his property is inconsiderable, and his death will make it still more so. The earth itself, on which man has so limited a place, is only an atom compared with the immensity of the heavens. ‘The generations which people it,’ the Holy Spirit tells us, ‘are like a drop of water sparkling in a vase.’ All men, who so greedily pursue wealth and pleasure, all nations who tear each other asunder to secure the preponderance of power in this world, are less than a handful of ants who dispute the possession of a wisp of straw. Whilst they thus pursue the objects of their dreams, they are advancing unconsciously towards the pit, which will swallow up all their vain hopes. Thus have lived, are living, and will live, the generations which have succeeded each other or will succeed each other on earth. The few chosen souls have lifted their thoughts and hearts above deceptive appearances and have sought after eternal goods.”

Sunday provides respite from our daily work. It's the perfect time to slow down and actually think and meditate on matters of the spirit. While not impossible during the other six days of the week, between our work and domestic chores, we don't always find a good chunk of time to really assess things in the manner Father urges. We can and should find that chunk on Sundays. If we're wise enough to keep our Sundays separate and apart from the same-old same-old that dominates most of our time, we stand a chance of strengthening our spiritual lives in ways that our usual daily lives don't afford.

Comparing that daily life to eternity is a good place to start. Father's words capture the essence of that comparison. It's likely we've seen this sort of analysis or comparison already, or maybe something close to it. But did we then let it sink in and become a permanent part of how we view ourselves and the world? If not, now's the time to open up and let the truth in, allow it to take root and grow. 

Or would we rather "greedily pursue wealth and pleasure." Can we really do so after reading that "all nations who tear each other asunder to secure the preponderance of power in this world, are less than a handful of ants who dispute the possession of a wisp of straw." If such is the status of entire nations, what of us?

Don't think this is important? Prefer to stay stuck in a universe that consists of striving for wealth, success, influence, recognition, power - in short all that the world, the flesh, and the devil have to offer? Does it ever occur to us that to do so puts us in that class of people who "pursue the objects of their dreams...advancing unconsciously towards the pit" where we will find all our vain hopes swallowed up?

Rather than following the crowd over the precipice, we can instead join those few chosen souls who "have lifted their thoughts and hearts above deceptive appearances and have sought after eternal goods."

If we desire a place among the chosen, the best time to start would be right now. Carve out sufficient time to re-read Father's words. Allow them to sink in. We need to keep them at our fingertips, right at the top of our minds and hearts. There they will serve as the armor we need the next time the world, the flesh, and the devil try to sink their hooks into us.

To be able to see life as it really is will be worth however long it takes. Only then can we sincerely make a special intention to live life as it really is, as God designed it for us.

With that, our Sunday can become not simply a day off from work, but a milestone in our struggle to stay spiritually grounded at work.

Happy Sunday!