A Third Sunday of Lent Thought About Veritatis Splendor
We're entering that "middle" portion of Lent. Those of us who took the
trouble to plot some sort of plan for special acts of prayer, penance,
and almsgiving have either been at it for a while, or we're realizing
it's time to really get with the program. If you're one of the latter, no problem. There's nothing wrong with building
your spiritual devotion as Lent progresses. As for those of us who
haven't yet focused on a Lenten spiritual discipline, well, hope springs
eternal. Fortunately for you, Lent, like a middle distance race (800 -
1500 meters) still has a way to go. Just don't forget that, as opposed
to the 5,000 or 10,000 meter race, the finish line will appear soon - so
it may be wise now to pick up the pace.
Either way, we'll all need to sustain our spiritual practices during these middle days of Lent. While
the need to keep at it that can be challenging for many of us, one way
to keep us motivated and on point might be to recall why it's so
important that we do. To put it simply, we're sinners. Given that simple
fact, as we saw last Sunday, our Lenten discipline will both make reparation for our sins, and help strengthen us to avoid sin.
Of course, this all assumes we accept the fact that we're sinners.
These days, that's asking a lot. Sin isn't something we hear about
much, even from our priests and bishops. As a result, some Catholics,
even if they bother to examine their consciences, can't fathom anything
that they would consider a sin. Indeed lately, such thinking has morphed
into a belief that the Ten Commandments, rather than being actual
commandments to do or not do this or that, have now become an ideal
of some sort. As such, we're not expected to actually comply; just try.
And if we try - even if we fail miserably - well, there's no sin. That
applies especially to commandments we consider particularly difficult to
obey. And so, rather than express sorrow for sin, we get to excuse
ourselves. Rather than Commandments, they're more or less suggestions.
Confession? What's the point? No sin, no need. In fact, when you think
about it, why bother with our Lenten observances?
If this sort of purported "logic" makes your head spin, join the club. So given the confusing state of affairs, here's something that might help us stay motivated to persist in our spiritual discipline during Lent. It's from an encyclical by Pope St. John Paul II. It will refresh our understanding of just what it means to say that the Ten Commandments aren't suggestions, but laws which we're expected to obey.
Our late and now canonized Pope shows us how our struggle to adhere to
the Commandments will serve both as reparation for sin and as a means of
strengthening us to grow in holiness.
From Veritatis Splendor 103-104 (emphasis added):
As Saint Andrew of Crete observes, the law itself “was enlivened by
grace and made to serve it in a harmonious and fruitful combination.
Each element preserved its characteristics without change or confusion.
In a divine manner, he turned what could be burdensome and tyrannical
into what is easy to bear and a source of freedom”.
Only in the mystery of Christ’s Redemption do we discover the “concrete” possibilities of man. “It would be a very serious error to conclude… that the Church’s teaching is essentially only an “ideal” which
must then be adapted, proportioned, graduated to the so-called concrete
possibilities of man, according to a “balancing of the goods in
question”. But what are the “concrete possibilities of man”? And of
which man are we speaking? Of man dominated by lust or of man redeemed
by Christ? This is what is at stake: the reality of Christ’s redemption.
Christ has redeemed us! This means that he has given us the possibility of realizing the entire truth of our being; he
has set our freedom free from the domination of concupiscence. And if
redeemed man still sins, this is not due to an imperfection of Christ’s
redemptive act, but to man’s will not to avail himself of the grace
which flows from that act. God’s command is of course proportioned to
man’s capabilities; but to the capabilities of the man to whom the Holy
Spirit has been given; of the man who, though he has fallen into sin,
can always obtain pardon and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit”.
104. In
this context, appropriate allowance is made both for God’s mercy
towards the sinner who converts and for the understanding of human
weakness. Such understanding never means compromising and
falsifying the standard of good and evil in order to adapt it to
particular circumstances. It is quite human for the sinner to
acknowledge his weakness and to ask mercy for his failings; what is
unacceptable is the attitude of one who makes his own weakness the
criterion of the truth about the good, so that he can feel
self-justified, without even the need to have recourse to God and his
mercy. An attitude of this sort corrupts the morality of society as a
whole, since it encourages doubt about the objectivity of the moral law
in general and a rejection of the absoluteness of moral prohibitions
regarding specific human acts, and it ends up by confusing all judgments
about values.
We persist in our Lenten discipline because we believe the truths of our
Catholic Faith, one of which is that the Ten Commandments are just
that: commandments, not suggestions and not some unattainable ideal. And
so we pray for the grace to: adhere to them at all times; make a good
confession, with a firm purpose of amendment, when we fail to do so.
It's simple really. And it's a spiritual discipline that has worked for
centuries. Why not strive to strengthen that discipline during this Holy
Season of Lent?
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