THERE are many reasons for this. One
could be that the
spiritual life has not been nourished properly by prayer and
sacrifice. So, there’s a fundamental disconnect from the source of
spiritual life.
A person in this predicament then develops complacency and
lukewarmness, a kind of spiritual anemia, which can still deteriorate
into the worse state of unbelief that can attract all sorts of
anomalies. The spiritual growth is stunted and arrested.
It is because of this possible scenario that we are
encouraged to pray without ceasing and to be generous in our
sacrifices and mortification and penance. Christ himself told to us
clearly: “If anyone has to follow me, he should deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow me.”
Another cause for the weakening of the spiritual life
could be that even while some form of prayer and sacrifice is done,
there is no recourse to the sacraments nor the study of doctrine and
its application to life. And so there’s a discrepancy between faith
and life, intentions and deed, words and action.
A person in this situation often resorts to deception and
plays the game of hypocrisy, or at best, he is a dreamer who fails to
take up the means to realize his dream. A double life often ensues.
A person in this situation often plays up his natural
talents—his intelligence, for example, or his good looks, or his
histrionic powers plus the clever use of gimmicks and other devices—to
cover up the emptiness of his spiritual life. He can attract many
people, except God and those who can read what is really inside his
heart.
His purely intellectual understanding of things, while
considered deep and vast, if not complicated, according to worldly
standards, would be cold and sweeping, without the refinement produced
by the charity and mercy of God.
He is prone to lecturing and scolding people. He can drip
in self-righteousness. Unfortunately, many people have come to me to
complain about certain priests who tend to be scolding them during
homilies, or who deliver their homilies with clear absence of a soul.
This has to be looked into. This is a serious problem.
If not that, then another possibility is that his words
would be so crafted to make them attractive in a pompous way. As
Shakespeare would put it: “It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing.” He can manage to charm the naïve
and the highly impressionable and excitable people.
In a sense, he is a more dangerous person, since he can
mislead a lot of people. He fits the image of the hireling mentioned
in the gospel, the antithesis of the good shepherd who would go to
extremes to save a lost sheep.
Another cause of weakening of the spiritual life would be
worldly attachments, and the cares and concerns of our earthly life
that can dull our natural longing for God. The lust for money, for
power and fame, are the usual culprits.
We need to be most careful when signs of these dangers
start to appear. We have to nip them in the bud with God’s grace and
our all-out effort. That effort, which can go to an extraordinary
degree, would be all worthwhile, since the spiritual life is the most
fundamental aspect of our life, it being our very link and necessary
contact with God, our Father and Creator.
Insofar as God is concerned, we have to convince ourselves
that he has given us everything to assure us of our salvation, and
therefore to help us in our spiritual life. All we have to do is to
rev up our faith and to do the implications and consequences of that
faith.
But there is still one aspect of the weakening of the
spiritual life that is most intriguing. It is the case of a person who
seems to have and to be doing already everything that we could
consider to be healthy spiritual life.
He prays, he offers sacrifices, he goes to the sacraments,
he is knowledgeable about the doctrine of the faith, he works well and
has many virtues, he does some apostolate, etc. But he knows there is
still something missing in him that he has to learn to give, always
with God’s grace.
It is because of this that he also knows that while he is
already doing a lot, he can still be afflicted with a persistent
misery that he seems unable to get rid of. Worse, that he is not yet
giving his all. This is the greatest challenge in the spiritual life.
spiritual life has not been nourished properly by prayer and
sacrifice. So, there’s a fundamental disconnect from the source of
spiritual life.
A person in this predicament then develops complacency and
lukewarmness, a kind of spiritual anemia, which can still deteriorate
into the worse state of unbelief that can attract all sorts of
anomalies. The spiritual growth is stunted and arrested.
It is because of this possible scenario that we are
encouraged to pray without ceasing and to be generous in our
sacrifices and mortification and penance. Christ himself told to us
clearly: “If anyone has to follow me, he should deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow me.”
Another cause for the weakening of the spiritual life
could be that even while some form of prayer and sacrifice is done,
there is no recourse to the sacraments nor the study of doctrine and
its application to life. And so there’s a discrepancy between faith
and life, intentions and deed, words and action.
A person in this situation often resorts to deception and
plays the game of hypocrisy, or at best, he is a dreamer who fails to
take up the means to realize his dream. A double life often ensues.
A person in this situation often plays up his natural
talents—his intelligence, for example, or his good looks, or his
histrionic powers plus the clever use of gimmicks and other devices—to
cover up the emptiness of his spiritual life. He can attract many
people, except God and those who can read what is really inside his
heart.
His purely intellectual understanding of things, while
considered deep and vast, if not complicated, according to worldly
standards, would be cold and sweeping, without the refinement produced
by the charity and mercy of God.
He is prone to lecturing and scolding people. He can drip
in self-righteousness. Unfortunately, many people have come to me to
complain about certain priests who tend to be scolding them during
homilies, or who deliver their homilies with clear absence of a soul.
This has to be looked into. This is a serious problem.
If not that, then another possibility is that his words
would be so crafted to make them attractive in a pompous way. As
Shakespeare would put it: “It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing.” He can manage to charm the naïve
and the highly impressionable and excitable people.
In a sense, he is a more dangerous person, since he can
mislead a lot of people. He fits the image of the hireling mentioned
in the gospel, the antithesis of the good shepherd who would go to
extremes to save a lost sheep.
Another cause of weakening of the spiritual life would be
worldly attachments, and the cares and concerns of our earthly life
that can dull our natural longing for God. The lust for money, for
power and fame, are the usual culprits.
We need to be most careful when signs of these dangers
start to appear. We have to nip them in the bud with God’s grace and
our all-out effort. That effort, which can go to an extraordinary
degree, would be all worthwhile, since the spiritual life is the most
fundamental aspect of our life, it being our very link and necessary
contact with God, our Father and Creator.
Insofar as God is concerned, we have to convince ourselves
that he has given us everything to assure us of our salvation, and
therefore to help us in our spiritual life. All we have to do is to
rev up our faith and to do the implications and consequences of that
faith.
But there is still one aspect of the weakening of the
spiritual life that is most intriguing. It is the case of a person who
seems to have and to be doing already everything that we could
consider to be healthy spiritual life.
He prays, he offers sacrifices, he goes to the sacraments,
he is knowledgeable about the doctrine of the faith, he works well and
has many virtues, he does some apostolate, etc. But he knows there is
still something missing in him that he has to learn to give, always
with God’s grace.
It is because of this that he also knows that while he is
already doing a lot, he can still be afflicted with a persistent
misery that he seems unable to get rid of. Worse, that he is not yet
giving his all. This is the greatest challenge in the spiritual life.
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