Memorial of Saint Anthony, Abbot

Lectionary: 308

Take care, brothers and sisters,
that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,
so as to forsake the living God.
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,”
so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.

If only obedience to Christ were a matter of external conformity! That would be so much easier than what God demands. We would have only to look and behave like Christians. Our thoughts, impulses and desires could remain hidden; our doubts, fears and resentments would remain unspoken. Our prayers would be so easy and satisfying, untroubled by a conflict with the day-to-day experience of our lives. We might say with Ebeneezer Scrooge, “I have contributed to the Poor House Fund. That’s enough!” and be right about it!

But God wants our hearts, and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews warns us not to have “an evil and unfaithful heart so as to forsake the living God.”

He recalls both the divinely inspired tradition of fidelity among the Jewish people, and the less-inspired tradition of infidelity. There was a serpent in Eden; there were grumblers in the Sinai Desert; there were infidels in Jerusalem and false prophets in the temple. The ninth and tenth commandments -- “Thou shall not covet….” -- insist that even your secret thoughts are subject to divine inspection. The desires you never admit even to yourself sabotage your fidelity.

I have known men and women to attend twelve step meetings for years and never get the program. They talk the talk but – for reasons I cannot divine – never really admit, “I cannot do it!” Their resentments over past hurts are as fresh as yesterday. Long dead loved ones beckon from the grave, suggesting despair and suicide. Time after time they start afresh on the wrong path, intending to try again. They don’t realize they are only trying God’s patience.

The Author of Hebrews teaches us, “Encourage yourselves daily while it is still today.” I have noticed that some who cannot get the program quit drinking, doping or gambling for the rest of their lives. They intend to take permanent control of the uncontrollable.

But that is not what God asks. He gives us only one day at a time and so we must encourage ourselves daily while it is still today. Each and every day I must pray again, “God, I cannot do it. Only you can save me. Please take my hand and guide me through this day.”

That kind of prayer is familiar to Christians as we say “…give us this day our daily bread;” and to Catholics who recite “…pray for us now and at the hour of our death.”

But familiarity doesn’t make it happen. Each day, and many times a day, I must stop what I am doing, remember whom I know, love and serve; and begin again, One Day At A Time.