Participating in the Work of God

I spent the day in the same activity with which I spend at least two days a week: housecleaning. These days I have to be especially careful about these tasks, as I have some houseguests, who will be staying here in the parish house over the holiday. In the universe of housecleaning there is, of course a whole universe of tasks, all of which have their time and season. Today, I worked to tackle one after another of them, and by the end of the day, I found that I had met most of my goals to my satisfaction. First off, the entire house had to be dusted, then the floors had to be dry mopped to remove the cat hair that had accumulated over the past few days, then the floors had to be wet mopped to remove stains and dirt that had been tracked into the house. The bathrooms had to be cleaned, of course, and the kitchen cabinets had to be washed.

It was my mother, who taught me many years ago that cleaning is not be despised, because it is a share in what God does. It is making order out of chaos. It mirrors Creation in this respect, but it also mirrors the Redemption in Christ, because Christ has made a new harmonious order of our lives by His life-giving death and Resurrection. It is a great honour to participate in what God does, even though it may seem menial and burdensome sometimes. I have found that focusing on the honour that this kind of work is helps immeasurably to ennoble it in my own mind, and calm me during the work, so that I am not hurrying to finish it, or wishing that I could just finish so that I can do something else.

I think that it is one of the primary problems of us human beings that we have the false expectation that life should be easy (or, at least, easier), but I know now from experience that when I am wed to the idea that my life should be easy it robs me of something that is absolutely essential to my life and existence: JOY. Life is not easy, but it is in the very difficulties that we find joy. Clinging to the idea that life should be easy leads us only to resentment (because it is not what it ought to be), anger, envy (because we perceive that, perhaps, other people's lives are easy), and every other spiritual malady leading up to sadness, depression and bitterness. As a priest I have worked a lot in nursing homes over the years. There you meet a lot of bitterness, depression and sadness most often because life turned out to be different from what was expected.

So, we are called to participate in God's work of bringing order out of chaos. It's not glorious. The heavens don't open; angels do not descend, accompanied by the music of heavenly choirs. There are no thunderclaps, hailstones or flashes of fire. There are just us—holding our toilet brushes. Yet, the significance of the things we do is much greater than this world. We participate in God's Creation and His work of Redemption.

Dealing with the Bad News—God has willed for us a Cold Persecution: Treading the Path Between Consolation and Desolation

One of my current interests is an in depth investigation of the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, and harmonizing it with the various elements of the spirituality of our tradition. This task is more important than it may, at first, appear, since from the middle of the last century, the Society of Jesus has played an important role in mission work and evangelization in Eastern Europe and throughout the East. In fact, some of those who suffered for the Faith in the gulags and prisons of the Soviet Union were Jesuits, and still to this day the Russian Mission belongs to the Society of Jesus.

This task of mine has attained an even greater importance for me personally now in the aftermath of the election. Certainly, from a natural point of view there is great justification for disappointment and even depression as a result of the outcome. After all, whatever you feel or believe about the current American president and his fellows in the Senate, one thing is positively for certain: under their leadership, the rights of the Church will not be restored. The position of the Catholic Church in the United States is now one of cold persecution.

Nevertheless, looked at in another way, this outcome, just like everything else that exists, is a manifestation of God's compassion. Just as, in the past, the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church, so too, if we are faithful in this persecution, the Church will come out the stronger. According to St. Ignatius, we have a positive obligation to look at misfortune and sorrow in this way. In Ignatius' view there are really only two elements in human experience: consolation and desolation. Ignatius understands consolation as any movement in the soul that urges the soul closer to God, while desolation is the opposite. It is any movement in the soul that urges it away from God. Therefore, consolation is not to be understood in the sense in which the word is used by earlier authors. In these authors, consolation is an emotional feeling, especially a feeling of joy or peace during prayer. Many spiritual authors warn their readers not to seek consolations, and not to become attached to consolations. Ignatius is different in the sense that he is constantly seeking consolation in the spiritual life, because he understands consolation as the movement of the soul towards God. For him, it has nothing to do with emotional feelings, joy or the like.

Because of this emphasis and attention on the internal movements of the soul, there is a corresponding emphasis on frequent examination of conscience in order to build greater awareness of these movements. We especially, of course, want to be aware of the appearance of desolation in our souls, and immediately strive to correct it. We want to be aware of the fruits of various actions; did the actions give to us consolation or desolation in the end. In other words, temptations to discouragement, depression or the like, as a result of things like the outcome of this election have to be rejected as the attempts of the Enemy to inject desolation into our souls (that is, move our souls away from God). This approach is highly experiential, since we can actually feel all of our progress and regress by means of examination of what is going on within us.

Desolation cannot be allowed to enter us, no matter what. After all, what occurs in our lives occurs according to God's Will. There is a beautiful Baptist hymn, which makes this point very strongly. It is called "It is Well with my Soul."

When peace, like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

 

Chorus: It is well, it is well, with my soul, with my soul.

It is well, it is well with my soul.

 

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

 

Chorus:

 

My sin –oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—

My sin—not in part, but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

 

Chorus:

 

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,

"Even so"—it is well with my soul.

 

Chorus:

 

The essential point that the hymn makes plain is that we cannot allow any kind of desolation to enter our souls, because we have no reason for any such depression, doubt or discouragement. The enemies of the Church are the ones who have the problem (and a severe one at that), not us. No, as the hymn says, "It is well with our souls." Our mission and duty remains the same as yesterday and the day before. We have to help and pray for those who are not well, especially or enemies.