IC I, 19 (24^th Sunday of Year A)

“Remember your last days; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Remember!” - Sirach (1^st reading).

Sometimes I think that we would all become saints if we had better memories. What I mean is, most of us have had times of religious fervor, moments of inspiring pious thoughts, and a sobering self-examination with a good confession. And then, something happens; the intensity slackens and we forget. The old, well-established habits return and we then tend to become disillusioned. This common experience should never make us abandon the project of the spiritual life but make us tougher, more resolute to recover our discipline. If only we could keep this idea in memory, we would make progress and not slide backward!

This always variable state of men as they live in this world day after day is the reason why we need constant reminders through sermons, through reading the lives of the saints, and through daily prayer to aspire excellence and to help arrest those recurring and nagging tendencies to commit sin. Saint Paul needed to refresh the memories of the Roman Christians, reminding them that they were not absolute masters of their lives but servants of Jesus who should place themselves under his empire. In a similar way, we think that our Lord’s instruction in this Gospel about being merciful towards anyone who may have offended us is a fine discourse, but when we are in the heat of the moment, suffering from insult or calumny, injury or hate, the memory of Jesus’ words may easily elude us: we tend to forget them on account of the disturbance of the moment. But where would the Christian life be without disturbances, testings, annoying temptations, grief and heartache? It would perhaps be one smooth spiritual progression, but it would not gain us the merit necessary to collect the reward every Christian aspires to attain.

The chapter on the Imitation that we consider this week might seem at first glance to be irrelevant to us. It concerns the practices of priests and nuns in religious life. But much of its advice is practicable to all Christians. To the point at hand, we are reminded,

Each day we should renew our resolution, and bestir ourselves to fervor, as though it were the first day of our conversion, and say, ‘Help me, O Lord God, in my good resolve and in your holy service: grant me this day to begin perfectly, for before now I have accomplished nothing.’

Perhaps we have become weary of starting over and over again to be good Christians. It’s difficult and, perhaps, discouraging at times. But, if those who make repeated acts of determination to be religious people have so much difficulty and so many struggles, what would become of them without that habitual resolution? Would they not be so much the worse?

Sometimes we observe people who are not very religious and who seem to sail through life unperturbed. We may even harbor a secret envy of their tranquil lives. They may not pray, or go to Mass, or even care about committing sin. And they seem to do so well! “That’s not fair” we might think. Why should I bother when they have such carefree lives and I so many hardships?

Actually, with real spiritual perspective, we have to assert that the state of such persons is the worst possible in this life. For, if they have given up, or never even tried to cultivate a spiritual life, it might just be because they have become friends of the devil. Or, it may be that God has acceded to their wish to live without God and allowed them to go their own way without interfering. The result in that case would be, as Jesus indicated in another place, that “they have had their reward”, having whatever reward would be due to them here on earth for the few good things they may have done: a temporal reward because they will not have the eternal. Never should we think that those who have no sufferings or trials are necessarily better off than others. That’s the near-sighted point of view. Scripture says that God chastises those whom He loves. Heaven is worth the labor and the conflicts needed to acquire it!

So, let’s not give up trying. We have to renew our good resolutions all the time; we have to examine our consciences frequently to see how we might be offending God or neighbor. We have to keep fighting the relentless attractive proposals of the devils. We have to do our daily work and not evade our responsibilities for more pleasurable pursuits, even religious ones. And, concerning our battles, we need to remember that God will not send us more than we can bear.

The chapter in the Imitation concludes with a quotation from Saint Luke’s Gospel, reminding us (again, the memory!), reminding us of the promise of our Savior: “Blessed is the servant whom the Lord, when He comes, will find ready. I tell you truly that He will set him over all his possessions.”

Not bad! Having custody over all that belongs to God is high payment for a servant who merely does his duty! We need to keep this thought before us all the time. We need to cultivate good memories so that we will not forget the things that Jesus has promised for those who remain faithful!