by Will Reaves, Director of Faith Formation and Intergenerational Catechesis
Over the last couple weeks, we’ve seen how the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments have the power to change our lives. But we have also confronted the reality that sometimes our lives don’t seem to change all that much. Perhaps we have fallen even deeper in to our addictions to sin and to self than when we first started to live our Christian vocation. Although God loves us with an inexhaustible and transforming love, we are not noticeably transformed. Some part of ourselves resists that transformation, and we war within ourselves to be the people we want to be. St. Paul tells us in Romans 7:19 that he had the same set of struggles: “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” It seems a universal aspect of the human condition that being good is hard, and being holy is even harder.
So how do we achieve that holiness? The answer is that, in a real sense, we don’t achieve anything. Paul continues in Romans 7 that it is Jesus who saves him (and us) from sinful habits and behavior. Our role is to surrender to God and His Mercy, and entrust ourselves to Him. That is how the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments and all the other blessings we receive from God work and bear fruit in us. Change truly begins to happen when we trust in God enough to let Him direct our lives. It’s then that we can achieve results better than anything we could on our own.
Challenge: Go to YouTube and watch “"Heaven: You're Not Good Enough" with Father Mike Schmitz. Trust me, it’s more optimistic than the title makes it sound.