Faith requires perseverance. It often grows in stages. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we walk away. So often, we must crawl. Whether we consciously admit to it or not, our faith—our life in Christ—has sustained us throughout the ups and downs of our lives. It has sustained us in moments of new life and in death, at times of sickness, and at those times when we struggle to give meaning to painful situations.
It’s not unusual to experience discouragement on the road to holiness, especially when we live in a world that is filled with temptations and persecution. With God on our side, nothing the devil can do will ever prevail over us. However, it’s the moment we become too discouraged to ask God for help that the devil is waiting for. So how can we prevent this from happening?
Today, Fr. Mike explains the root of discouragement in our faith journey, and how to keep leaning on God through that struggle.
Life can change in a single moment. This is not just the stuff of movies and fairy tales. Your life really can change in an instant, for better or for worse.
I remember sitting at breakfast in New York City, at the Athletics Club overlooking Central Park, the day I made my first publishing deal. John F. Kennedy Jr. was sitting at the next table. I can still taste the fresh cut slices of pineapple. Later that morning I walked into a publishing meeting that changed my life forever. A few short years later, I watched the news that John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane had gone down off Martha’s Vineyard. A single tragic accident had ended his life.
Some life-changing moments lift up our hearts and make us feel like we are on top of the world, but others are soul-crushing. I was experiencing the soul-crushing variety.
Life can change in the blink of an eye, but most of the significant changes in our lives build over time before compounding into something wonderful or devastating. Anyone who has loved an addict or narcissist knows this all too well. As does anyone who has worked their whole life to develop a talent only to be discovered in an unexpected place at an unexpected time.
I have had more than my fair share of everything good that life has to offer. But it’s the unexpected nature of the worst experiences of our lives that exacerbates the way they devastate us. Something happens and because of it everything changes. You will never be the same, your life will never be the same, your heart will never be the same, but life presses on with or without you, relentlessly pushing you toward the unknown future.
Three times before I was forty, I sat in a doctor office and was told I had cancer. The first time I was thirty-five. I remember leaving the doctor’s office in a daze, my life had just changed in an instant. I was face to face with my mortality for the first time. I sat in my car for about twenty minutes before I even started it, and I have vivid memories of the whole world swirling around me. What seemed important an hour ago no longer mattered. People rushing here and there, going about their lives, oblivious to the fact that the whole direction of my life had just shifted. It’s a lonely feeling. The second time I was thirty-eight and the third time was the following year. The third encounter led to the removal of a large portion of my right kidney.
But nobody gave me cancer. It just happened. It was just part of life. There was nobody to blame, no one to harbor anger and resentment toward. That makes it easier.
It’s when a person intentionally hurts you, changes your life in an instant, that you face the darkest parts of yourself. It’s when a group of people decide to harm you, collectively or one at a time, that your faith in humanity is tested.
I was having my car washed the other day because I’m lazy and old. I always go to the same place, and while I was at the carwash, I saw one of the workers who I’ve met a few times. The man said, “Hmmm…you served in the Army?” Yes. “You were in the 101st Airborne?” Yes, for about three years. . . He must have seen the 101st sticker on my car. The man said, “I saw a movie about them when they were in Vietnam. I couldn’t do what they did.” Well, they weren’t Superman; they were just boys from the neighborhood. However, we had been convinced that we were Superman, and we certainly acted like it with a big red “S” on our chest and thinking we could do anything. I wanted to ask the man at the carwash who had told him that he couldn’t do it. I mean, I’m not Schwarzenegger, and I made it. So, who told you that you couldn’t do it?
It was the same thing that told our first parents they were naked. God asked Adam and Eve, “Who told you that you were naked?” Why did God create us? What’s the first question in the old Catechism? By the way, the Catechism is the best teaching tool we have in the Church. God made us because He loves us and so that we can be with Him forever. He is always calling us to everlasting life. The Gospel tells us, “Go to Him. He is calling you.” Our Lord calls us to Him. Bartimaeus did not take time to think about his fears, and even though he was blind, he went to Jesus. Which is interesting because it doesn’t say that somebody helped him…he just ran to Jesus. Ask a blind man to go somewhere without help. But he did. It is possible. So, don’t say, “I can’t do it.”
Our Lord calls us to holiness. And what is holiness? It’s a return to our original state. The original state of man and the state we are called to is not sin. The original state of man and the one that Jesus wants to transform us to is the state of Adam and Eve before the fall. It was the state of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They were truly human. It is sin that makes us less than human. Sin was never supposed to be in our souls.
The saints prove it is possible to return to holiness. . .to strive for holiness and to achieve the greatest amount of holiness we can in this life and perfection in the next. The saints prove it is possible, and they were just like us. They weren’t supermen or superwomen. They were just like us, but they took advantage of the graces that God offers. God calls us, no matter our state or vocation, to offer us the grace we need to return to holiness. He doesn’t ask us to do the impossible. He offers us the necessary grace to do it, but we must reach out and take that grace and cooperate with it.
Each time we come to Mass and receive Holy Communion or go to Confession, we grow in faith, hope, and charity which are what we call the Theological or infused virtues. We do not get them by prayer or works. They are infused in us through worthy reception of the Sacraments and are activated by works and prayer. Go to Mass. Go to Confession. Acquired virtues you get by doing works. Acquired and Theological virtues give us the power to turn away from sin and live for God. Use the virtues you have. An example is the virtue of music that Frankie has by reading that coded musical language that nobody understands. She has the gift of being able to play the organ and piano so well, but if she stops playing, she will lose the gift. We must exercise our gifts…we have to use them. When you do, don’t be afraid by the lack of results or reception. We are doing it for God Himself. Do not fear. He is calling you. Run to Him.
We take counsel of our fears, and we should never do that because fear is always a lie. The worse thing I ever lived through never happened. We are afraid we might lose something, that it will be too hard, that we can’t do it, or that we won’t have any fun. Anybody can do brain surgery if you are willing to go to medical school. Take it one step at a time. You won’t be asked to do brain surgery on the first day. You’ll have to wait six or seven years before you can. Do not be afraid. The Master is calling you. He is calling us to share in the blessings and joys of heaven. “Does He know all my faults?” Yeah, I’m pretty sure He does. “Does He know I’m not perfect?” Yeah, I’m pretty sure He knows that too. He wants to help make you perfect. We become perfect in heaven. We progress each day taking up our cross and following Him. . . Each day by bearing our sufferings. . .Each day by asking for the grace we need to carry our cross.
Remember the spiritual lie: “Oh I’m good…my relationship is good.” Did you know that’s the worse spot to be in? You have too much confidence in yourself, and that’s when you should be very afraid. Self-satisfaction is saying, “I’m fine just the way I am.” The good Lord will say, “Fine.” Come back when you’re not.” Grow ever closer to Him. We have nothing to fear. Get up and go to Him. In our fallen state, just like Bartimaeus, we will be restored to the way we are supposed to be. So, in the words of Gospel, “You have nothing to fear from Him. Get up. He is calling you.”
Father’s Afterthoughts: I don’t recommend anyone imitating my style. It is particular. I give some people nicknames like “Face” that just come to me. I really should up my meds. On Friday I was up at the VA. I knocked on a patient’s door and called out to him. The patient, Tommy, had been asleep and grumbled as he was trying to wake up. So, in my most commanding voice, I said “On your feet soldier!!” That got Tommy’s mind right. It snapped him right back to the old days. With other patients, you can’t do that, but with Tommy I can. You know Congress made me an officer and a gentleman? Never, ever trust those people!
How will you apply this message to your life?
You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to https://annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.” Sermon notes can also be found on the church Facebook page by searching for “Facebook Our Lady of the Annunciation Albemarle”
The scope of every life is indeed defined by the questions we choose to live into, and if we are blessed to live long enough, we will inevitably end up shaped like a question mark. Since quest is also the start of every question, it is questions, not answers, that are the surest guideposts for any journey of faith—which necessarily means moving into the unknowable. Always trust the open, heartfelt question that lays bare the soul to unknowing.
Whether they are simplistic or sophisticated, handle answers with care, for they often reflect and display, for all the world to see, the broad sweep of our ignorance. Perhaps, for this reason, wisdom teachers use stories, ballads, parables, or poems. Such lyrical musings open spaces for fresh appreciations and diverse perspectives. They foster fascination and expose imagination to wider fields of understanding, laced with mystery, which always leads us down and out to face yet another, more penetrating question.
“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.”— St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
“Some people who think themselves naturally gifted don’t want to touch either philosophy or logic. They don’t even want to learn natural science. They demand bare faith alone—as if they wanted to harvest grapes right away without putting any work into the vine. We must prune, dig, trellis, and do all the other work. I think you’ll agree the pruning knife, the pickaxe, and the farmer’s tools are necessary for growing grapevines, so that they will produce edible fruit. And as in farming, so in medicine: the one who has learned something is the one who has practiced the various lessons, so that he can cultivate or heal. And here, too, I say you’re truly educated if you bring everything to bear on the truth. Taking what’s useful from geometry, music, grammar, and philosophy itself, you guard the Faith from assault.”— St. Clement of Alexandria, p. 13
Despite the fact that much about Saint Giles is shrouded in mystery, we can say that he was one of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages. Likely, he was born in the first half of the seventh century in southeastern France. That is where he built a monastery that became a popular stopping-off point for pilgrims making their way to Compostela in Spain, and the Holy Land.
In England, many ancient churches and hospitals were dedicated to Giles. One of the sections of the city of Brussels is named after him. In Germany, Giles was included among the so-called 14 Holy Helpers, a popular group of saints to whom people prayed, especially for recovery from disease, and for strength at the hour of death. Also among the 14 were Saints Christopher, Barbara, and Blaise. Interestingly, Giles was the only non-martyr among them. Devotion to the “Holy Helpers” was especially strong in parts of Germany and in Hungary and Sweden. Such devotion made his popularity spread. Giles was soon invoked as the patron of the poor and the disabled.
The pilgrimage center that once drew so many fell into disrepair some centuries after Giles’ death.
Reflection
Saint Giles may not have been a martyr but, as the word martyr means, he was a true witness to the faith. This is attested to by the faith of the People of God in the Middle Ages. He became one of the “holy helpers” and can still function in that role for us today.
