Today the reading from the handbook speaks to us about some issues that are related to the virtue of courage. It speaks of the obstacles that we face whenever we first think about doing a good work. The illustration contained in this reading is extremely useful. The difficulties at first appear like a dense forest. From a distance, it is impenetrable, but if we walk forward, steadfastly toward it, the closer we get to it the more we can see the paths forward through the trees.
There is a pervasive ignorance all around us in the world concerning how to make progress in the spiritual life. Thus, our churches, mainly our parish communities, are reduced to places of formalistic worship, in which the priest or the deacon from Sunday to Sunday gives some advice on how to embody some ethical principle. The matter of the homily is generalized and thus separated from the experience of most of his hearers. Being that this is the state (at least in the West) of the Church, it is little wonder that, as the recent Pew Research Study shows, for every convert that enters the Church, eight leave. The only way out of the kind of formalism, divorced from healing and progress through the spiritual life, is docility to the Holy Spirit and commitment to His inspirations.
We all know from experience that we receive inspirations to change our lives in ways, which will deepen our relationship with God and bring us closer to Him. It is at this point that the realization of those inspirations seems like the forest afar off, mentioned in the handbook today. We have a good idea about how to improve our life spiritually, and immediately we are faced by insurmountable obstacles like Zeno's Paradox. To realize our desire, we have to accomplish a great many things, but in order to accomplish those things, we must first accomplish half those things, and in order to accomplish half those things, we must accomplish half those things, and so on. We cannot even begin to move. This is the reason why we need a specific, testable resolution. Making progress in the spiritual life means making one, simple resolution based on the inspiration that God has given us. Far from being a mechanical process, the formation of such a resolution is the fruit of a loving, daily conversation between us and the One Who loves us the most deeply. We make one, specific, testable resolution. We pray for divine grace. We receive the sacraments to nourish and strengthen our resolve. Then, at the end of the day, we test ourselves on the resolution. Once, with God's help, we attain mastery in the area of any resolution, we make another resolution, relying as we did before on the nourishment of the sacraments to lead us on to victory. By means of this process, we go from Zeno's Paradox to incremental progress in growth in virtue.
Often, we make the error of adopting too many resolutions. Thus, our strength is dissipated, and we fail to accomplish any of them. Adopting a single, testable resolution, one after another, is an exercise in the virtue of humility, By this process, we walk with Christ, we lean on Him, recognizing our own insufficiency and weakness. The primary agency is always Christ's. It is He Who guides us through the action of His all-Holy Spirit to the resolution, then it is He Who strengthens us for its accomplishment in the sacraments. It is He Who becomes present to us, encourages and advises us as a good physician in the context of prayer.
We have a God Who wants us to communicate with Him. I often think that this is precisely the reason why He has given us the Holy Scriptures. They are not "the one, infallible rule of faith" as Protestants often insist. They are inerrant and a rule of faith, but I think these things spring from the reality of what they really are. God wants to communicate with us, so He has spoken to us. He has broached the silence. He has taken the initiative. He has broken the ice. He has given us the Holy Scriptures so that we will not be tongue-tied in our conversation with Him. We have His Holy and wholly reliable words to us, so that learning them, we may come to hear Him, Who does not speak with a bodily voice, but spiritually.
So, we are assured of making progress in the spiritual life if we lovingly remain in His presence, listening to His inspirations concerning the direction of our lives; if we make a single, testable resolution, asking for His help in realizing it; if we fortify ourselves with the sacraments, attaining the necessary strength to fulfill our good intentions; and if we test ourselves daily on our resolutions in loving conversation with Him.
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