Community in Mission

As November winds down and Advent still looms, the traditional meditation we make on the four last things (death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell) is still operative. A classic writing by St. Cyprian comes to mind. It is a meditation on the fundamental human struggle to be free of undue attachment to this world and to have God (and the things waiting for us in Heaven) as our highest priority.

In this meditation, St. Cyprian has in mind the Book of James and the Epistle of St. John. Yes, surely these dramatic texts are present in his mind as he writes. Hence, before pondering St. Cyprian, it may be good to reference these forceful and uncompromising texts:

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God … Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded (James 4:4,8).

The Lord Jesus, of course, had first said,

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money (Matt 6:24).

And St. John also adds,

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:15-17).

Nothing is perhaps so difficult to imagine, especially for us moderns, as being wholly free of the enticements of the world. These texts, so adamant and uncompromising, shock us by their sweeping condemnation of “the world.” For who can really say that he has no love for the world?

We may, however, be able to find temporary refuge in some distinctions. The adulterous love of attachment and the preference for the world over its creator is certainly to be condemned. Yet surely the love for what is good, true, and beautiful in the world is proper. St. Paul speaks of those things “which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim 4:3-5).

However, our distinction, though proper, cannot provide most of us with full cover, since we also know that the adulterous love of this world is still aplenty in our soul, however much noble love we also have. And the lust of the world is more than willing to sacrifice the good, the true, and the beautiful (not to mention God himself) for baser pleasures.

Only God can free us. And while some are gifted to achieve remarkable poverty of spirit long before departing this world, most of us are not ultimately freed from the lust of this world until God uses the dying process itself to free us. Slowly we die to this world as we see our skills, strength, and looks begin to fade as we age. And as old age sets in, we say farewell to friends, perhaps a spouse, and maybe the home we owned. Our eyesight, hearing, and general health begin to suffer many and lasting assaults; complications begin to set in.

For those who are faithful (and I have made this journey with many an older parishioner as well as some family members), it begins to become clear that what matters most is no longer here in this world, that our true treasure is in Heaven and with God. A gentle longing for what is above grows. For those who are faithful, slowly the lust of this world dies as we let God do His work.

Yet too many, even of those who believe, resist this work of God. While a natural fear of death is to be expected, too many live in open denial of and resistance to what is inevitably coming. Our many medicines and creature comforts help maintain the illusion that we can hold on to this world, and some people try to tighten their grip on it. A natural fear of death is supplanted by a grasping, clinging fear, rooted in a lack of faith and little desire for God.

And this is where we pick up with St. Cyprian:

How unreasonable it is to pray that God’s will be done, and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world!

Instead we struggle and resist [death] like self-willed slaves and are brought into the Lord’s presence with sorrow and lamentation, not freely consenting to our departure, but constrained by necessity.

And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by him to whom we come against our will! Why then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us? What is the point of praying so often for its early arrival if we should rather serve the devil here, than reign with Christ.

The world hates Christians, so why give your love to it instead of following Christ, who loves you and has redeemed you?

John is most urgent in his epistle when he tells us not to love the world by yielding to sensual desires. Never give your love to the world, he warns, or to anything in it. A man cannot love the Father and love the world at the same time. All that the world offers is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and earthly ambition. The world and its allurements will pass away, but the man who has done the will of God shall live for ever.

Our part, my dear brothers, is to be single-minded, firm in faith, and steadfast in courage, ready for God’s will, whatever it may be.

Banish the fear of death and think of the eternal life that follows. That will show people that we really live our faith.

We ought never to forget, beloved, that we have renounced the world. We are living here now as aliens and only for a time. When the day of our homecoming puts an end to our exile, frees us from the bonds of the world, and restores us to paradise and to a kingdom, we should welcome it.

What man, stationed in a foreign land, would not want to return to his own country as soon as possible? Well, we look upon paradise as our country, and a great crowd of our loved ones awaits us there, a countless throng of parents, brothers and children longs for us to join them. Assured though they are of their own salvation, they are still concerned about ours. What joy both for them and for us to see one another and embrace! O the delight of that heavenly kingdom where there is no fear of death! O the supreme and endless bliss of everlasting life!

There is the glorious band of apostles, there, the exultant assembly of prophets, there, the innumerable host of martyrs, crowned for their glorious victory in combat and in death. There, in triumph, are the virgins who subdued their passions by the strength of continence. There the merciful are rewarded, those who fulfilled the demands of justice by providing for the poor. In obedience to the Lord’s command, they turned their earthly patrimony into heavenly treasure.

My dear brothers, let all our longing be to join them as soon as we may. May God see our desire, may Christ see this resolve that springs from faith, for he will give the rewards of his love more abundantly to those who have longed for him more fervently (Treatise on Mortality: Cap 18:24, 26: CSEL 3, 308, 312-314).

Amen.

As November ends but Advent begins, remember the four last things: death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. Prepare to meet God eagerly; run toward Him with joy and confidence, calling on Him who made you for Himself. Death will surely come. Why not let it find you joyful, victorious, and confident—eager to go and meet God?

What is temptation? Temptation is the work of Satan to drag you to Hell. And Satan can read you like a book and play you like piano. Do not exaggerate his power, but do not underestimate it either.

Some of his subtlest work is done in the area of religious observance. There, he can cloak himself quite easily in the lamb’s clothing of piety, but, wolf that he really is, distort it, either through excess or defect, thereby destroying you with what is good. Beware what some spiritual writers call the “traps of the pious.” Consider some examples:

• He can discourage you with prayer by saying, “If only you would pray a little longer, God will give you what you seek.” But the deception is that if we can pray a little longer, then we can never have prayed enough. Thus though we pray, we only feel guilty and inadequate. And since we can never have prayed “enough,” prayer increasingly turns into a burdensome task; God becomes a cruel taskmaster demanding longer and more precise prayers. Or prayer becomes a superstitious endeavor whose outcome we somehow control by the length and type of our prayers. Jesus counsels us that the Father knows what we need and that we should not think that merely multiple words and pious actions are necessary. We may need to persevere in prayer over time, but God is not a cruel tyrant demanding endless incantations.
• Satan can take the beautiful practice of praying the rosary, or attending daily Mass, or other devotions and slowly incite in us a feeling of smug superiority, elitism, or pride. Gradually, others are thought to be less devout, even in error, because they do not do or observe what is optional or encouraged but not required. What is beautiful and holy is thus employed to incite ever-growing pride and cynicism. A most extreme form of this comes from those who take the beautiful and powerful devotion to our Lady of Fatima and allow Satan to set them against even the Pope and all the world’s bishops by claiming that they failed, either ineptly or willfully, to properly consecrate Russia. And thus one of our most beautiful and informative apparitions can engender in some people distrust of the Church and disunity from her, from multiple popes, and even from Sister Lucia herself. It is an astonishingly crafty work of the evil one to take what is good and religious and corrupt it in the minds of some.
• Satan can also take what IS required and turn it into a kind of religious minimalism, a way of keeping God at a distance. And thus he tempts some souls with the notion that Sunday Mass, a little something in the collection plate, and a few rushed prayers are the end of religion rather than the beginning of it. Such observances become a way of “checking off the God-box” and being done with God for the week, rather than a foundation on which to build a beautiful and ever-deepening relationship of love with God. Such minimal practices become a form of “God-control” for those tempted in this way; it is as if to say, “I’ve done what I am supposed to do, now God and the Church have to leave me alone. God also needs to take care me now since I’ve done what I’m required to do.” And thus the Church’s beautiful laws and the requirements describing the basic duties or foundation for a deepening relationship with God, become a kind of “separation agreement,” insisting on very strict visiting hours and specifying who gets what.
• Satan can take religious zeal and corrupt it into harsh and uncharitable zealotry. He can take a love for the beauty of the Liturgy, ancient or new, and turn it into a persnickety insistence on exactly the right ingredients, at the expense of charity and at the cost of ridicule, false superiority, and disunity. And thus, charity thrust aside, we say, “Just make sure you celebrate the liturgy the way I like it. Anyone who doesn’t like what I like is antiquarian, a knave, or an uncouth troglodyte and must obviously hate the Church that I love so beautifully …”
• Satan can take the beautiful love for the poor and corrupt it into an enslaving paternalism that locks them into dependency, or does not address their spiritual needs by speaking to them respectfully of their sins, or does not seek to deepen their spiritual and family lives. And thus the beautiful corporal works of mercy are either set at odds with the spiritual works of mercy or are considered adequate in themselves. Satan can send many to serve the poor, armed with half-truths and approaches that merely bandage deeper wounds without addressing them.

Well, you see, in a certain sense, any virtue will do. Satan can make use of any of them and will seek to corrupt all of them, even the religious ones. He will just as surely go to work in the life of someone in a church pew, as in a brothel or the gutter. No one is exempt from his work of temptation; his goal is to drag us to Hell.

What makes his work of corrupting virtue so insidious is the subtlety of his work, for he takes something that is intrinsically good and seeks to corrupt it, either by excess or defect, or to turn it into some sort of caricature of itself.

Virtues, of course, are meant to work in combination with other virtues that balance them. For example, charity should be balanced by truth and truth by charity. Without charity, the truth can bludgeon; without truth, charity can become harmful, patronizing, and wickedly affirming. Charity and truth are meant to balance each other and to work alongside other virtues in a delicate interplay.

One of Satan’s tactics is to take one virtue and isolate it from others. Beware of these subtle tactics of Satan, who disguises himself well in the robes of virtue. But they are detached virtues, virtues out of balance and proportion.

Beware the traps of the pious.

The readings today on this Feast of Christ the King evoke three images of Christ as King. All of them are to some extent paradoxical, for they emphasize things about a king that we don’t usually think of in relation to a king. They also tell us that we have already met King Jesus, even if we didn’t know it. Let’s look at these three images of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of all Creation.

I. Caring King – The first reading, from Ezekiel 34, speaks of the Lord in terms of a shepherd who cares for his flock. Some of the lines that summarize His care are, I myself will look after and tend my sheep … I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark … I myself will give them rest … The lost I will seek out … The strayed I will bring back … The injured I will bind up. The sick I will heal.

It is not usual for us in the modern world to think of kings and heads of state in such a caring role. Most world leaders today are wholly inaccessible to us, existing behind many layers of security and staff. Even many bishops of larger dioceses are hard to reach personally.

But Jesus is a King who is more present to us than even we are to ourselves. An old revival hymn says, “Jesus is on the Main Line … call him up and tell him what you want.” Another song says, “God is just one prayer away.”

It was more common and less paradoxical in the ancient world to speak of a caring king. Most kings had more immediate contact with their subjects. Many kings had certain days on which their subjects could line up to talk to them. It is said that St. Athanasius ran up to the emperor on his horse one day, grabbed the reins, and proceeded to debate a theological point with him. Even until relatively recently, US presidents had office hours. It is said that on Tuesdays, Abraham Lincoln received visitors from among the citizenry, who sought to speak to him of their concerns. They would line up at the door without formal appointments and he’d listen to them, one by one. As our culture has become more violent and public figures more widely recognized and vulnerable, leaders now tend to live in sealed, bulletproof, and figuratively soundproof worlds, hearing little from “ordinary people” and mainly from their staff.

So the idea of a king who personally cares for his people is paradoxical to us. But Jesus does care for His people.

I want to testify that I do indeed have a caring King, Jesus. He’s been good to me. He has led me, rescued me, purified me, fed me, instructed me, and graced me; He died for me.

And I also want to testify that He was being good to me even when I didn’t think He was being good to me. Scripture says, All things work together for good to them who love and trust the Lord (Rom 8:28). Notice that not just the “good things” work for my benefit, but even the bad things. God sometimes permits some “stuff” to happen because it will bless us in the end. Even if you’re suffering, don’t give up on God. Some of His gifts come in strange packages. St Paul says, For this affliction is producing for us a weight of glory beyond compare (2 Cor 4:17).

And did you notice the last line in the passage from Ezekiel? But the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly. Yes, even at those times when I needed to be humbled (to have my pride destroyed) the Lord was shepherding me rightly. There was a time in my life when I was more sleek and strong. And the Lord let me experience some humiliation, destroying me, as it were, and giving me humility. I even see this humiliation physically, for I was once sleek and now I am fat. And it is humbling to be fat, especially when people scold me. They think it is easy to lose weight. But God will humble them too, perhaps in other ways. God hates pride; He just can’t stand it. This is because He knows how deadly it is to us.

Yes, God is a caring King. Some of His ways are paradoxical. Do not reduce the noun “care” merely to meaning “that which comforts and consoles.” It can be that, but not always! Sometimes the “caring” thing to do is to rebuke, warn, or even punish. But God never ceases to care for us. I’m a witness. He’s been good to me. Even when I didn’t think He was being good, He was being good.

II. Conquering King – The second reading speaks of the victory of Jesus over all things, saying that He has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep; that He has reversed what Adam did; that He is the first fruits, then each one in proper order will also rise. It says that He will hand the kingdom over to God his Father when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power and that he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet, the last enemy to be destroyed being death.

Here, too, there is a great paradox. For as Hebrews says, In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death (Heb 2:8-10).

So while at times it seems that evil triumphs, God is working. One by one, He is putting all His enemies under His feet. One day even death itself will be destroyed. The paradox of the Cross shouts to us that God conquers, not by brutality and cruel strength, but by love and by things such as forgiveness and mercy—things the world dismisses as weak.

Here, too, I want to say that God is a conquering King in my life. He has destroyed the power of many sins and diminished the strength of others on the way to their ultimate destruction. I have seen sins put down and under His feet, as He cleanses the temple of my soul. He has conquered so much of my pride. I am seeing lust, greed, anger, sloth, envy, and fear on the ropes. One by one, He is diminishing their power and replacing them with greater love, compassion, kindness, purity, love for the truth, prayerfulness, courage, trust, and eagerness to do good and to win souls.

Thank you, Lord, for being a conquering King in my life.

And this conquering King, unlike worldly kings, does not force us to be His subjects and live in His kingdom. Earthly kings conquer regions and force peoples under their rule by might. But Jesus is a King who respects our freedom to decide whether to have Him as our King and to accept the virtues of His kingdom, or not. Hence Hell is not so much a place of punishment as it is a place to which those who refuse, those who say “no” to Christ and His kingdom, depart. This King, though He is all powerful, does not force His kingship and laws. He offers them to all, and each of us must decide.

III. Concealed  King – The Gospel teaches us that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. And in this coming we will discover that we have known Him all along, but in a paradoxical way. As Christ comes and takes His seat and all are summoned to Him, we are going to have a strange sense that we’ve met Him before. And He will confirm that.

For indeed, we have met His Majesty and He is the strangest King of all. He is a King who is hungry, thirsty, sick, lonely, a foreigner, in prison, and a stranger. And the list He gives should not be seen as exhaustive, for He is in the needy, whether rich or poor. He is in the discouraged loved one who cannot find a job; He is in our children who need to be taught and encouraged; he is in the co-worker who just lost his wife; he is in the customer who was diagnosed with cancer. He is in the lost youth or family member who needs instruction and needs to be drawn back to the Sacraments. He’s even in you, in your struggles and needs.

Yes, we have met this King every day. And He is not merely saying that these people have some moral union with Him. He is saying, mystically, that He IS each one of them. And when we cared for them, we were not simply doing something ethical; we were serving and caring for Him: “You did it for me.”

What a strange King! We think of kings in palaces, far removed from trouble. But this King is naked, poor, hungry, and thirsty. We walk past Him every day.

And to those who have cared for Him in His poor He says, “I will never forget what you have done.” The poor may not be able to repay us, but King Jesus will repay us a millionfold. And on the day of our judgment we will look at Jesus and say, “I know you! I recognize you!” And He will say, “I know you, too … come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

We should not view this judgment scene as containing the only standards by which we are to be judged, for numerous other passages lay out other standards such as having faith, being willing to carry our cross, living in purity, forgiving others, loving our enemy, and so forth. But this passage DOES remind us that we are not to neglect the corporal works of mercy.

Yes, Jesus our King, the strangest King you will ever meet: a caring and close King, a conquering King who never forces, a King who is hungry and thirsty, a King who reigns from the Cross, a King who dies so we don’t have to, a King who washes our feet, a King who comes to serve rather than to be served. He is a King, all right, one who rules with love, not by force. He’s the strangest King you’ve ever met, and you meet Him every day: in the Eucharist, in the poor, in His Word, in your heart, in the events of your day … in your very self.

 

 

There’s an old expression, seldom used today although I remember the old folks used it sometimes when I was young, “May you sleep the sleep of the just.” When my Great Aunt Polly used it, she meant simply, “May you sleep well.” But more richly and historically, the phrase speaks to a serenity that comes from having a quiet conscience, a conscience that is untroubled by the burden of unconfessed and unrepentant sin. A serene and clean conscience is an untroubled conscience, and thus we can sleep well and deeply.

Despite any claims that sinners have all the fun, the reality is that they really do not and cannot. Sin brings with it many burdens, among them a troubled conscience. Whatever efforts some make to try to suppress their consciences, deep down there is still that voice of God echoing in the heart of every person, the still, small voice of God, who has written his law into our hearts. Unrepentant sin and the bold, prideful attitude that insists on calling “good” or “no big deal” what God calls sin, are not the ingredients of a serene conscience and do not permit the sleep of the just.

In addition to a troubled conscience and stress, sin also brings many other complications to life. For example,

• Intemperance and gluttony bring addiction and a whole host of problems that go with such addiction.
• Alcohol and drug addictions are surely legendary for the troubles they bring. But excess (gluttony) in relation to food also brings terrible struggles such as diabetes, hypertension, joint pain and arthritis, and a sluggish mind.
• Sins of lust bring many stressful and tragic situations into life such as sexually transmitted diseases (including AIDS), abortion, divorce, and single motherhood.
• Fornicators and adulterers often pay, literally, for their sins through alimony, child support to different women, etc.
• The sin of vanity makes people slaves to the mirror and they become obsessed and worry constantly about what others think of them.
• Liars and deceivers live with the constant anxiety of being found out.

Yes, sin brings many stresses and crushing burdens. Much better, happier, and simpler is your life by resisting sin. It brings a serene conscience and the sleep of the just. A sinful life brings with it burdens, sleepless anxieties, and dissipation. Sin always promises happiness, but then sends the bill.

Pope St. Gregory the Great has some powerful words in this regard in his Pastoral Rule, especially regarding liars and deceivers. His references to the “insincere” are to those who lie, deceive, or live double lives:

The insincere are to be advised that they learn how heavy is the load of duplicity, which they sinfully bear. And because they fear being discovered, they always seek dishonest defenses and become agitated by fearful suspicions. But there is nothing that is safer for one’s defense and nothing easier than speaking the truth. For when one is forced to defend his deceit, his heart becomes wearied from the endeavor. Thus it is written, “The mischief of their lips overwhelms them!” (Psalm 140:9) … Because they refuse to live in sincerity, they will labor their whole life until death … always hiding what they are … struggling to excuse those sins that have already been made known … Let the insincere hear what is written: “Whoever walks in integrity, walks securely. But whoever takes crooked paths will be found out!” (Proverbs 10:9).  (Pastoral Rule III.11)

Perhaps it is best to end with those words of St. Gregory and with this wish: may you sleep the sleep of the just!

How do you think of prayer? Is it another thing you “have to do” among many other things on your list? Or is prayer a time when you refrain from doing? Is prayer a requirement you regret or a rest you relish? What is prayer for you?

The danger in answering questions like these is that we may answer them the way we think they “should” be answered rather than in an honest way. Many struggle with prayer and experience it with a lot of negativity: boredom, distraction, drudgery, and so forth.

The fact is, prayer is tough. We are very sensory by nature and used to seeing and hearing the one to whom we speak. To encounter God in silence and without sight is unfamiliar, jarring, and challenging. Some use icons or pictures, some a prayer book; some pray before the Blessed Sacrament. But in the end, the eyes of the flesh cannot see, only the eyes of the heart, the eyes of faith can. This is not only difficult, it is obnoxious to our flesh (i.e., sinful nature), which demands to see and hear on its own terms. And the flesh wages war on our spirit (cf Gal 5:17) and like a fidgeting child protests all throughout prayer.

Of course the best way to address this problem is with honesty. Without honesty we don’t really have a spiritual life. A true journey to God requires that all the masks come off, that all the little lies we like to tell ourselves and all the deceptions be set aside. Start with honesty.

Praying out of what is – When people tell me they have a hard time praying I say, “Then THAT is your prayer.  Tell God how absolutely bored you are when you pray. Tell Him that you would rather do just about anything than pray to Him. Tell Him that when it occurs to you that you should pray, or when some crazy priest reminds you to pray, your heart sinks and you put it off and put it off. Tell God you hate praying … And do you know what you are doing as you tell Him all this? You are praying!”

Yes, this is prayer.

“But Father, but Father, I can’t talk to God like that!” “Why not?” I say. God already knows that this is how you feel. It’s a pretty silly thing to sit in front of God wearing a mask that He can see right through: but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb 4:13). Five minutes of a prayer of honesty is better than two hours of a prayer of rhetoric and “stained glass” themes that we don’t really mean. Pray honestly; talk to God about what is really going on.

The Book of Psalms is the prayer book of the Bible and it has God for its author. And notice how plain-spoken the psalms are.

Every emotion, every experience is grist for the prayer mill: joy, serenity, victory, thanksgiving, petition, anger (even anger at God!), rage, vengefulness, disappointment, loss, grief, fear, and despair. It’s all there and more. There are even psalms that ask God to harm or kill our enemy (69, 109, 137). Even the beautiful Psalm 139 ends with the request that God slay the wicked. But these are feelings we have from time to time and God wants us to talk to Him about them. If the Book of Psalms is a directive for prayer (and it is), then God wants us to speak to Him about everything, even the darkest and most sinful of things. Prayer is conversation with God. But it has to be honest.

And something starts to happen when we become really honest in prayer. Little by little, it becomes more relevant to us and we even start to like it a bit. Now don’t tell your flesh that! But your soul starts to breathe; it starts to exhale. When all the little self-imposed, unbiblical rules about prayer and all the things we’re “not supposed to say to God”  get set aside, the soul enjoys freedom, and the honesty is refreshing.

And little by little, prayer becomes not so much another thing to do as it is a rest from all our doing. It is a time to rest, to exhale, to sigh, and to be refreshed by the simple act of being honest with someone who loves us and whom we are growing to love. Someone who, before ever a word is on our lips, knows it through and through (Psalm 139:4). Prayer is the freedom to be honest, to rest from the labor of wearing masks, and to be relieved of the restless anxiety about what others think or expect of us. Prayer is a sigh of truth, a rest from the contradictory demands of an often phony world.

Consider this description of prayer from St. Anselm:

Insignificant man, escape from your everyday business for a short while, hide for a moment from your restless thoughts. Break off from your cares and troubles and be less concerned about your tasks and labors. Make a little time for God and rest a while in him. Enter into your mind’s inner chamber. Shut out everything but God and whatever helps you to seek him. And when you have shut the door, look for him, speak to God … (Proslogion, Chapter 1).

Yes, speak to God. Be honest. Tell Him what is really happening. If you need a manual to assist you, get a good Bible or copy of the psalms—one that gives a title or a brief sentence describing its content. Find one that suits you on this particular day and then read it, slowly. Before long, as the weeks and years tick by, you’ll find you are speaking on your own, in psalm-like honesty. Some of us even grow silent over the years, as words no longer seem necessary or even possible: cor ad cor loquitur (heart speaks to heart).

And when words seem difficult to come by, just sigh. St. Augustine says, This task [of prayer] is generally accomplished more through sighs than words, more through weeping than speech (Letter 130, to Proba).  It may seem a strange thing, but sighing is very relaxing, and much is released from the soul by it.  I have often thought of Gregorian Chant as a musical sigh to God, and it brings me great peace. I am blessed to have a cavernous Church and to be able to read and sing Chant there.

So pray. Pray honestly. If words are hard, just sigh or sit quietly. But pray. Watch and wait for the Lord. It’s not work, it’s rest.

There is another old hymn that speaks of the delights of true and honest prayer. It is the old classic, “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” Note its lyrics and then answer these questions: “Is this how you think of prayer? If not, why not?” What if your prayer were less “rule-bound” and more just time you spent apart from this dreary world and with God? Pray these words and ask for their reality:

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! That calls me from a world of care, And bids me at my Father’s throne Make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, My soul has often found relief, And oft escaped the tempter’s snare, By thy return, sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! Thy wings shall my petition bear To Him whose truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless. And since He bids me seek His face, Believe His Word and trust His grace, I’ll cast on Him my every care, And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! May I thy consolation share, Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise To seize the everlasting prize, And shout, while passing through the air, “Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”

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The video at the bottom of the page is something of a spoof on drug commercials, treating sin like a drug. Wait until you hear the side effects disclaimer at the end. 🙂

I also thought today of doing a little post on the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance, since I was talking to a parishioner today who is suffering because his employer has not paid him for three weeks. His employer, a shipping agency, says this is  due to “administrative difficulties.” He was angry (rightfully so) and getting desperate. I reminded him that withholding wages was a sin that cried to heaven and that God was angry. The rest of our conversation I’ll keep private.

With that painful situation in mind, and thinking about how the negligent sin of one affects another, it occurs to me offer a few lists of sins that may prove as helpful reminders to all of us in our struggle against it. Sometimes it helps to see sin in categories and to be able to “name the demons,” as an aid in combatting them. These are just a few helpful lists. There are others and I invite you to add to them. For the sake of brevity, I do not fully develop them all.

In keeping with the video below, consider these lists a kind of “Sin on Sale”—a clearance sale if you will. The lists below can be purchased separately or together in packages. All items are ALWAYS in stock; shipping and handling are free from the supplier. But do beware of the potential, and likely, side effects!

The sins that cry to heaven for vengeance: (CCC 1867)

1. Murder (Gn 4:10)
2. Sodomy (Gn 17:20-21)
3. Oppression of the poor (Ex 2:23)
4. Defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas 5:4)

Seven Deadly Sins: (more on these HERE)

1. Pride – the sinful drive that distorts proper self-love so that we esteem our own self more than is proper
2. Greed – the excessive and insatiable desire for more than is reasonable or proper
3. Lust – the sinful drive that leads to excessive or inappropriate desires or thoughts of a sexual nature
4. Anger – the sinful drive that leads to inordinate and unrestrained feelings of hatred and wrath
5. Gluttony – the sinful drive to overindulge in,  or over-consume anything (especially food and drink to the point of waste)
6. Envy – sorrow or sadness at the goodness or excellence of another person because I think it makes me look bad or appear less excellent
7. Sloth – the sinful drive that leads to sorrow or sadness at the good things God wants to do for me

Sins against the Holy Spirit:

1. Despair
2. Presumption
3. Envy
4. Obstinacy in sin
5. Final impenitence
6. Deliberate resistance to the known truth.

Sins against faith: (CCC 2088-2089)

1. Hesitating doubt – delaying the overcoming of doubts, difficulties, or objections due to indifference or laziness
2. Voluntary doubt – disregarding of the truth or on-going resistance to overcoming doubt
3. Incredulity – willful refusal to assent to revealed truths of the faith
4. Heresy – the choosing and overemphasizing of certain truths of the faith to the exclusion of others
5. Schism – refusal of submission to the Pope or Catholic communion
6. Apostasy – total repudiation of the Christian faith

Sins against God’s love: (CCC 2094)

1. Indifference
2. Ingratitude
3. Lukewarmness
4. Sloth – sorrow or aversion at the good things God offers to the soul,
5. Hatred of God – usually rooted in a prideful notion that refuses to be second to God.

Sins against the Honor that is Due to God: (CCC 2111-2117)

1. Superstition – the elevation of certain practices such that they are regarded as more important or powerful than prayer or trust in God
2. Idolatry – divinizing what is not God, false worship, holding creatures more precious than the one Creator who is God
3. Divination – undertaking practices meant to disclose the future, e.g., horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, recourse to mediums, etc.
4. Magic and spiritism – attempting to tame occult powers and place them at our service or to have power over others in this way

Sins of Irreligion: (CCC 2118-2128)

1. Tempting God – putting God to the test
2. Sacrilege – stealing sacred things, profaning sacraments or liturgical actions, desecrating or speaking irreverently of sacred persons, places, or things that are blessed or consecrated to God
3. Simony – buying or selling spiritual things, seeking to profit from them merely because they are blessed
4. Atheism – denying the existence of God, including the practical atheism of materialism and utopian notions that man can save himself
5. Agnosticism – an indifference toward God that refrains from formally denying His existence

Sins against the name of God: (CCC 2142-2155)

1. Promises – infidelity to promises or oaths made with God’s name
2. Profanity – using God’s name in vain ways that do not respect its sacred character, (e.g., empty expressions like “Oh, my God!”)
3. Blasphemy – speaking ill of God, trivializing, cursing, or ridiculing him. By extension, ridiculing sacred things or the Saints
4. Swearing – calling God to witness in matters that are trivial. Also, swearing a false oath, or committing perjury when under oath
5. Cursing – using God’s name to curse or call down evil on others

Sins against the Lord’s Day: (CCC 2185)

1. Refusing the worship owed to God
2. Refusing the joy proper to the Lord’s day
3. Refusing the relaxation of mind and body commanded on the Lord’s day
4. Refusing reasonable works of mercy proper to the Lord’s day

Sins Against life: (CCC 2268-2283)

1. Intentional homicide – all unjust killing
2. Abortion
3. Euthanasia
4. Suicide
5. Acting with reckless disregard for the safety and life of oneself or others

Sins against Chastity: (CCC 2351-2357)

1. Lust – willfully entertaining inordinate or disordered desires for sexual pleasure
2. Masturbation
3. Fornication
4. Adultery
5. Pornography
6. Prostitution
7. Rape
8. Homosexual activity

Sins of Injustice and theft: (CCC 2409ff)

1. Theft
2. Deliberately keeping borrowed things
3. Damaging the goods of others without restitution
4. Fraud
5. Paying unjust wages
6. Forcing up prices
7. Refusing to pay debts
8. Work poorly done
9. Tax evasion
10. Forgery
11. Excessive and wasteful practices
12. Hoarding
13. Excessive and unnecessary exploitation of natural resources
14. Refusing our legitimate obligations to the community
15. Refusing our legitimate obligations to the poor

20 Works of the Flesh:

1. Divisions (quarreling) (1 Cor 3:3)
2. Adultery (Gal 5:19)
3. Fornication (Gal 5:19)
4. Uncleanness (impurity or sexual defilement) (Gal 5:19)
5. Licentiousness (abuse of freedom) (Gal 5:19)
6. Idolatry (Gal 5:19)
7. Sorcery (φαρμακεία pharmakeia; to administer drugs for spells or contraceptive and abortifacient effects) (Gal 5:20)
8. Hatred (Gal 5:20)
9. Discord (Gal 5:20)
10. Jealousy (Gal 5:20)
11. Wrath (Gal 5:20)
12. Selfishness (Gal 5:20)
13. Dissension (Gal 5:20)
14. Heresy (Gal 5:20)
15. Envy (Gal 5:21)
16. Murder (Gal 5:21)
17. Drunkenness (Gal 5:21)
18. Reveling (carousing) (Gal 5:21)
19. Lust (Col 3:5)
20. Concupiscence (evil desires) (Col 3:5)

40 Characteristics of the Ungodly, especially in the last days: (2 Tim 3:2-9; Romans 1:28-29)

1. Lovers of themselves
2. Covetous
3. Boasters
4. Proud
5. Blasphemers
6. Disobedient to parents
7. Unthankful
8. Unholy
9. Without natural affection
10. Truce-breakers
11. False accusers
12. Without self control
13. Fierce (brutal)
14. Despisers of those who do good
15. Traitors
16. Rash
17. Lovers of pleasure more than God
18. Having the form of Godliness but denying the power of it.
19. Seducers
20. Unteachable
21. Resistant to the truth
22. Suppressing the truth
23. Corrupt minds
24. Foolish concerning the faith
25. Without progress
26. A base mind
27. Futile in their thinking
28. Possessed of darkened and senseless minds
29. Celebratory of and practicing unnatural sexual relations
30. Claiming to be wise but being fools
31. Dishonoring their bodies
32. Haters of God
33. Insolent
34. Inventors of evil
35. Heartless
36. Ruthless
37. Faithless
38. Approving sin and those who practice it
39. Under strong delusion (2 Thess 2:11)
40. Blinded by the god of this age (2 Cor 4:4)

Need more items? Try here: Litany of Penance and Reparation

These are just a few helpful lists drawn from the Catechism, with reference also to the Catholic Source Book and other places.

So there it is, a clearance sale on sin. And now, here’s a word from our sponsor!