By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
The way the human body physically works can teach us something about virtue and the way God’s grace works spiritually for each of us: We must use it to grow it.
As I reminded our Life Teens and their families at Mass recently, if they slack off on physical exercise during the summer, come fall it’s that much more difficult getting back into shape for soccer, track, basketball, or football.
And we all face the hurdles endemic to exercise in the great outdoors when the weather gets warmer and workouts as a result get tougher; we need to hydrate and take care of ourselves. But the body will indeed respond to the right challenges with the help of fuel to get it stronger and healthier.
When we are starting from a weak condition in order to improve, we obviously always have to work with what we have. How do we get stronger? Only by getting up and out and working out with what we do have; as we use what little we have consistently over a period of time, we get stronger. As all runners know, you become a stronger runner by running.
Many who have committed to sports, or any other physical activity, over a period of time and have achieved some success understand that it’s because we always begin all over again by working with what we have.
Grace, the gift of the Holy Spirit through the Church, works in just the same way so that we may grow in virtue, which word means “strength.”
We always begin to grow stronger in virtue by using whatever grace we find ourselves with at any given time and consistently exercise that virtue to grow stronger in it. Think of the parable of the mustard seed as a metaphor.
The virtues we need today must address the new temptations which arise as a result of the visual and Internet world in which we live — much of which is the virtual equivalent of an adult bookstore. We must become more sensitive to the way curiosity functions when temptation still remains in seed form in order to effectively combat it. Whenever we use the computer, we must ask ourselves what is our real purpose, and if it is not a virtuous one, then there is always something better we can do instead.
And when we gather with friends, we must sometimes guide the conversation intentionally in order to more effectively avoid the rabbit trails of gossip characteristic of some groups.
Our young people must be aware of their propensity to be unkind to some other teens if they are not athletic, popular, or attractive. Virtue directs the Christian to seek out friendship intentionally with those who struggle to fit in.
Parents together with the family exercise the ordinary virtue of keeping the Commandments by planning the weekend’s event so as to leave room in the schedule to keep the Lord’s Day holy with Jesus Christ in the parish Mass.
And of course Sunday Mass is our weekly virtue checkup with the Lord, remembering always the absolute necessity of Confession for forgiveness of mortal sins. We grow in grace only by starting with grace, given really and truly in a way we can touch, see, and receive in the Eucharist. Then we proceed to cooperate with the Lord truly received to grow in virtue and in holiness.
Just as with persons so also the Holy Spirit leads the Church to grow in a deeper life of prayer and worship.
At a recent Life Teen Mass I introduced the young people and their families to an example of the way this takes place in the life of the Church. I shared with them that ad orientem worship, when the priest and people face the Lord together during the Canon of the Mass, would be a significant new tool for their spiritual toolbox. It is an example of the way the Holy Spirit has led the Church corporately to a deeper and more intense life of prayer throughout history.
“Turning together toward the Lord” has been handed down to us and we too should hand it on to all of our young people as a good and sacred thing that remains such now as it has always been.
What does it mean when the priest goes up to the altar on behalf of the people, together with whom he turns to the Lord? A more effective sign and experience of the coming of the Lord in history to us all in every Mass is powerfully proclaimed. Both priest and people approach the altar in spirit together as one Body of Christ, enabling the priest to be more deeply conscious of his self-offering in Christ on behalf of all. The people too can become more intentional about their own act of offering.
Gradually we have been introducing this richer understanding handed down through the ages in all of our Masses at St. Francis de Sales in Benedict, Md., but held off on Saturday nights for the sake of some folks struggling with sight and hearing challenges who unfortunately are more homebound now than not. Meanwhile, we can all learn that the Mass is in fact inclusive of those who are hard of hearing because we always use the First Eucharistic Prayer or Roman Canon.
We cooperate with grace together as a church in our rich liturgical life and we cooperate with grace to grow individually as Catholic Christians, always bringing whatever grace we have and using it consistently and sincerely to grow stronger day by day in the freedom of faith.
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Join me for a pilgrimage to Italy for the canonization of Mother Teresa in Rome and Assisi, Florence, and Venice from September 1-9, 2016. Go to proximotravel.com for more details or email me for more info at mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. @MCITLFrAphorism
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