Tuesday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
How do we avoid becoming complacent in our spiritual development? What are the consequences of becoming complacent in our faith? These are questions that confront us as we read and reflect on today’s readings. Like many of the teachings that are presented to us in our readings, the teaching is direct and to the point, but the change that is required from us to make the teaching come into the world through our behavior can be difficult. In a sense, Christianity is founded on a call to action for the purpose of prevailing against our selfish inclinations. This is a call to prevail over sin.
In our reading from Romans, St. Paul sets forth a concise summary of what we know as original sin. St. Paul provides this description: “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned.” (Rom 5:12) Many people do not like discussions about original sin. They either ignore it or choose to understand it in a manner that is inconsistent with its meaning. In some cases, they just don’t believe it exists. Yet, if we look at our behavior, the concept of original sin seems self-evident. Without effort and care, all things fall into disrepair and atrophy. If we wish to build a strong body, we exercise. If we do nothing, our health deteriorates. If we wish to learn, we must work on mentally engaging a topic. If we stop engaging the topic, we find that, over time, we forget what we learned. It would be odd to assume that we need work to build a strong body and mind, but our spiritual development will just occur on its own without effort. We know through observation that we are not born with a fully developed body, mind or faith. In today’s reading, St. Paul reminds us that we are challenged to overcome a tendency to become a slave to our own selfish desires. If we do nothing, if we make no effort, we will not prevail.
Our Gospel reading complements St. Paul’s message by directing us to be vigilant in our faith. Jesus informs his disciples that they must be ready for the Lord when he arrives. He uses the imagery of preparing one’s clothing for work and a lit lamp, to convey the state of preparation that he expects of his disciples. This message of vigilance seems particularly targeted towards those who are devout, but who have become complacent in their faith. The quote “Good is the enemy of great” is a quote that I have seen in a number of places and it seems particularly applicable here. If we become comfortable in our spiritual development, we become complacent, and when we become complacent we run the risk of regressing.
While St. Paul identifies the hazards of becoming complacent, we may be left with the question of how we remain vigilant and avoid complacency? While the answer to this question may be as varied as the people that are asking it, it seems that one common part of the answer is a daily effort. Daily private prayer, mass attendance, devotions, spiritual reading or any combination of these things are time tested methods for avoiding complacency. Perhaps our biggest challenge is to stop viewing these activities as our time during the day for God, after which we set God aside and begin the activities that consume the bulk of our day. Instead, our objective should be to conform all of our activities to Christ’s example.
- John Sperino