Spirit of the World: Day Nine

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

Day nine at Fish Eaters.

Day nine at The Catholic Company.

The treatment of temptations continues from Imitation of Christ, chapter 13 of book I. Regarding the fighting or resisting of temptations, it offers sound advice which I discovered before I read Imitation of Christ (and before consecration to our Lady). As a sailor, I swore like a sailor, and often, I didn't even realize I was swearing. It was part of my habit of speech. I reckon that since I never developed the habit as a child, but only as a young adult, I was able to defeat that habit easily after the intervention of friends and relatives. However, it never penetrated for me that using the Lord's name in vain was a sin. I didn't do it often as a child, and so I never really developed the mental block or virtue to avoid it as child. So using the Lord's name in vain is something that carried on for most of my adult life, until it finally sunk in, that I should not be doing so. And this was a hard habit for me so break. I learned to anticipate when I'd be tempted to swear out the Lord's name, and eventually, this habit was defeated (and it progressed to a point that it's like fingernails across the chalkboard whenever someone else utters the Lord's name in vain). And so, I can vouch for the advice given in today's reading. Resist early!

The Sacrament of Reconciliation or confession is a wonderful place for God's grace in resisting sins, but also at a mundane level it's a good place to get advice in resisting temptations. One piece of advice may have been influenced by the knowledge of my devotion to Mary. I was advised to pray the Hail Mary whenever I feel the beginnings of temptation. That also seems to have worked well for me.

But the final piece of advice given in this reading is the recognition that for some, temptations will be a lifelong burden. So, know that you'll need to persevere, but have faith in Jesus Christ that he will help us bear the burdens.

We should not despair, therefore, when we are tempted, but pray to God the more fervently that He may see fit to help us, for according to the word of Paul, He will make issue with temptation that we may be able to bear it. Let us humble our souls under the hand of God in every trial and temptation for He will save and exalt the humble in spirit.

Hopefully, it can be seen, that although we've fallen many times, it's possible to make progress, even if it's so slight. We can grow in Christ, and Christ can grow in us.

Spirit of the World: Day Eight

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

Day eight at Fish Eaters.

Day eight at The Catholic Company.

Today's reading from the Imitation of Christ gives some solid advice about temptation. We'll always experience temptations in this life—as the book of Job says, "The life of man upon earth is a warfare." We're warned not to simply flee temptations (although we should avoid those near occasions of sin), but to learn to overcome those temptations with God's help. We should not put ourselves into these situations, but when they come, overcoming the temptation will teach us the virtuous way.

Indeed, it is suggested that temptations are useful:

Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us & in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness.

Spirit of the World: Day Seven

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

Day seven at Fish Eaters.

Day seven at The Catholic Company.

Chapter 18 of Book I of the Imitation of Christ is continued from yesterday. The fervor of the saints of old are compared to the laxity of our times.

The saints:

To themselves they seemed as nothing, and they were despised by the world, but in the eyes of God they were precious and beloved. They lived in true humility and simple obedience; they walked in charity and patience, making progress daily on the pathway of spiritual life and obtaining great favor with God. 

The lax: "Today, he who is not a transgressor and who can bear patiently the duties which he has taken upon himself is considered great."

Much later, centuries after the publication of the Imitation of Christ, Soren Kierkegaard in Diapsalmata writes of the bourgeois moral attitude which seems typical even today:

Let others complain that the times are wicked. I complain that they are paltry; for they are without passion. The thoughts of men are thin and frail like lace, and they themselves are feeble like girl lace-makers. The thoughts of their hearts are too puny to be sinful. For a worm it might conceivably be regarded a sin to harbor thoughts such as theirs, not for a man who is formed in the image of God. Their lusts are staid and sluggish, their passions sleepy; they do their duty, these sordid minds, but permit themselves, as did the Jews, to trim the coins just the least little bit, thinking that if our Lord keep tab of them ever so carefully one might yet safely venture to fool him a bit. Fye upon them! It is therefore my soul ever returns to the Old Testament and to Shakespeare. There at least one feels that one is dealing with men and women; there one hates and loves, there one murders one's enemy and curses his issue through all generations—there one sins.

This seems Kierkegaard's way of expressing Revelation 3:16, "because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth."

The world beckons us to nod off, but let us remember the zeal of the saints who were alive in Christ.

Spirit of the World: Day Six

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

Day six at Fish Eaters.

Day six at The Catholic Company.

Again the reading is from the Imitation of Christ, and the topic is the examples of the saints. The following quote is an example of how they cast off the spirit of the world:

They used all their time profitably; every hour seemed too short for serving God, and in the great sweetness of contemplation, they forgot even their bodily needs. They renounced all riches, dignities, honors, friends, and associates. They desired nothing of the world.

Spirit of the World: Day Five

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

Day five at Fish Eaters.

Day five at The Catholic Company.

Today's reading from the Imitation of Christ is about vainglory or pride. This seems to me to be the great interior battle for fallen Mankind. I say this, because I recognize my frailty in this regard. And so I assume that this is a great battle for others. I could be wrong (that is, maybe others don't have to fight this fight).

I get some pushback for making similar statements as this in the reading: "In Your sight I am vanity and nothingness, a weak, unstable man." In God's sight, I am nothing. And I think this is true. And some folks seem to think that people shouldn't think so poorly about themselves. And I acknowledge that for some people, there might be a danger here. But for prideful people, going to the opposite extreme is a good tactic for obtaining the virtue of humility. But I still think the statement is true. In my pride and in my vanity, I am nothing.

And on the other hand, in a seeming paradox, I hold this statement by Saint John-Paul II as also true:

"We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son."

I am infinitely loved by God! I really am valuable!

How do I resolve this apparent contradiction? I think the key is this: without God, I am nothing. In my pride and vanity, I push God away from me, and I diminish. When I repent and turn back to God, I am so much more. And God's plan is that I be so much more, a being in the image and likeness of God. But I must empty myself of pride and sin, and allow God to form me and fashion me into something worthy of His glory—hopefully, to be present before Him, face-to-face.

Spirit of the World: Day Four

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

Day four at Fish Eaters.

Day four at The Catholic Company. 

The reading from the Imitation of Christ reminds us, that without God we are nothing, and we can make no demands upon God. Yes, we are loved and valued by God, but that value is a gift. Indeed, all we are, all we have, and all the good actions we do are only possible by God. Since we are fallen human beings, we tend to go wrong and astray without God's help.

This is worth quoting:

He who wishes to be too secure in time of peace will often become too dejected and fearful in time of trial. If you were wise enough to remain always humble and small in your own eyes, and to restrain and rule your spirit well, you would not fall so quickly into danger and offense. When a spirit of fervor is enkindled within you, you may well meditate on how you will feel when the fervor leaves.

We will be tried, and experience trials. And the final sentence stays with me, and I hope that it always will, that I remember when I received consolations from faith, that when that well seems to dry up, I'll be able to persevere during hard times.

Spirit of the World: Day Three

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

Day three at Fish Eaters.

Day three at The Catholic Company.

It may be a guy thing, but I'm often drawn to difficult things (although that is not universally true, since I also shirk mundane difficulties). Today's reading ends with the most difficult: "the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Mt 7:14). Being a faithful (and should I say "devout" given the modern twist?) Christian isn't easy. Indeed, staying on the narrow road and reaching the narrow gate is impossible without God. And if you're not bearing your cross, you're probably not doing it right. Christianity isn't about comfort and ease in this life. That's not Christ's promise.

"Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you" (Mt 7:6). How is it that I've missed this until now? Thanks to the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible and The Didache Bible, it's finally penetrated. If anything, the passage applies to the Blessed Sacrament, the most holy thing in the Catholic Church (for it is actually and truly Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament). This sacrament is not for those outside the Church (and it's not terribly difficult to enter the Church). And I remember the desecration of the Blessed Sacrament by atheists and Satanists (at least that is what they reported they did). That's literally trampling on it.

"Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find..." (Mt 7:7). Yes, it's about persevering in prayer (which we always should do), but it's also a promise: God will give good things to those who ask. The most important things you need, whether you realize it or not are mercy and grace. The Mercedes Benz you're asking for may not actually be good for you (that is, material riches).

 "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Mt 7:1). This verse is often misused to condemn people who judge actions to be sinful (guess what? In judging those who judge, they've done the same thing). Notice the personal pronoun "you" in the statement. We are not to judge people. The verse follows with the insight that most attracted me while I was on the path toward returning to the Church. That I and others note the speck in the eye of people who are not us, while ignoring the log in our own eyes. Our critical gaze is almost always outwards, when true transformation begins when we turn the gaze at our own hearts.

A very popular psycho-babble phrase when I was growing up was "I'm okay, you're okay." Looking back on it, it seems to me to answer a real need for mercy in a world that was beginning to turn away from God (around the same time, the cover of Time magazine asked, "Is God Dead?"). I see a similar thing from "recovering Catholics" who complain about "Catholic guilt." Pain and guilt can be good things, if they point to something wrong, in need of healing. The problem with these attitudes comes with the thought by the person that he doesn't need to change. The examination of our hearts is not to hate ourselves, or to think ourselves beyond mercy, but actually and eventually hate sin in the same way you might hate cancer. It's in order to move a person toward repentance, and ask Jesus, "Please heal me!" This is the cry of the blind man, asking to be healed, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Lk 18:35-43).