Remarkable Resistance

Nine hundred years ago, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux proclaimed, “There are more people converted from mortal sin to grace, than there are religious converted from good to better.” Think about that a moment and carefully read it again. What a tragic scandal, and yet what an obvious truth.

Lost, hell-bound people become good people at a far greater rate than good people become better people! In other words, more people are willing to give up mortal sin than their venial sins; more people are willing to turn to Christ than actually continue seeking Christ once they have found him! Once they are “good,” they typically worry little about becoming better—or best! They find it easy to overlook gossip, laziness, or overeating; they have little interest in ongoing faith formation and deepening their prayer life. They are content with the spark of divine life within them; they have no interest in enkindling the spark into a living flame, into a fire within.

Life is a journey to God. This journey is ordained to be an ongoing and lifelong growth in intimate friendship with God. Few take this ongoing journey particularly serious. Indeed, most are quite content in their mediocrity—many even enjoying it. Many think weekly mass and whatever else they do for Christ is quite generous; “after all, look at all those that don’t even go to church!” Many of our pastors feed into this in various ways, especially with their tendency to promote mass attendance at all cost and often little else. While I believe this situation has greatly worsened in recent decades, it is certainly nothing new.

Fr. Thomas Dubay, in his book Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer, calls this problem a “remarkable resistance.” It is remarkable because the entire purpose of the Christian life is to grow closer to God. And the reward for this growing nearness to God is growing personal fulfillment and a far better life for ourselves and those around us now and in eternity. So it is quite remarkable that we cannot see this clearly and that we indeed resist this deep conversion at every turn!

Fr. Dubay elaborates on the benefits hoping that glimpsing the truth of our call may prompt us to make God truly our first love—our first priority. And he points out that any one of these benefits should be more than enough on their own. And yet we still resist.

Obviously, the truth has not set us completely free. Certainly, if we clearly perceived what is offered and the path to share in it, we would give up everything and do anything for it. If God would ignite the fire within, we would see and we would do what we need to see and do! However, we must be faithful in the little things before the Lord gives us greater things; we must learn to walk before we can run—let alone soar. So, if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, wouldn’t we do something more than we are now doing for God? Wouldn’t we evaluate our lives, take a small step forward, reevaluate our lives, and take another step forward? Wouldn’t we prayerfully plot out our journey and the incremental next steps—and do this our entire lives? Wouldn’t we vigorously choose an overlooked fault—gossip, laziness, or overeating—and demolish it? Wouldn’t we spend an additional ten or fifteen minutes in our daily prayer? Wouldn’t we challenge ourselves, moment by moment, that we may see and challenge our impatience, our indulgence, our lack of generosity? Wouldn’t we soon experience some of the holy benefits of growing in God and begin to see and desire these more and more until indeed God enkindled a fire within?

And once the fire within is truly ablaze—and indeed only then—will we have a solid hope of working with God to ignite the fire within others—especially our spouse, our children, and our friends! Indeed, nothing can replace a person on fire for Christ. “John Henry Newman astutely observed that large groups of people, even large groups of religiously-minded people, do not light fires. Throughout the Church’s twenty centuries of history, it is individuals who ignite the blazes” (Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer, Fr. Thomas Dubay). Our calling—our most basic and most vital calling—is to love and seek God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and to help ignite the fire of God’s love within those around us. That’s it. That’s why we are here and this is what gives us true life and life more abundant.

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