Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 464

You have said, “It is vain to serve God,

and what do we profit by keeping his command, and going about in penitential dress in awe of the LORD of hosts?
Rather must we call the proud blessed;
for indeed evildoers prosper, and even tempt God with impunity.”

Then they who fear the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened attentively; and a record book was written before him of those who fear the LORD and trust in his name.

And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my own special possession, on the day I take action.

Each day I try to get up and recite the seven-decade Franciscan Crown before a statue of Our Lady of Montserrat. I say “I try” because I often don’t. The flesh is not willing and the spirit is phlegmatic. Something in me at 4:30 in the morning says, “It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command?”

For me, it’s a matter of keeping faith. His chroniclers tell how Saint Francis practiced rigorous habits of physical mortification. He ate little, slept little, wore thin rags against the winter's blast, and suffered the summer vermin that swarmed over him. After many years of such treatment his body became totally submissive to his will, which was totally submissive to the Spirit of God.

Especially after he received the stigmata, when he looked to all appearances like a corpse, Francis could rouse himself to preach with astonishing energy and joy. His congregations could hardly believe what they saw as this skeletal figure capered and danced about, singing God’s praises.  

The greatest spiritual teachers, including Saint Francis, do not recommend rigorous disciplines like his; but they are always suspicious of the body’s demands. Like the other parts of our human nature, it wants more than it needs and is never content.

The masters today recommend balanced living as a commendable sacrifice to the Lord. “In medio stat virtu,” they say; Virtue stands in the middle. Given the challenges of our time, balanced living is nearly as difficult as the rigorous fasts, vigils and mortifications of our ancestors. 

My sister Cathy, with husband Eddy,
son Andy and his wife, Jessica
at the MSF Picnic

Even that less dramatic discipline arouses hostile suspicions in some quarters. They still complain, “It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command?”

Faith is more than a vague allegiance to a God who might exist; it is making daily sacrifices of time and effort to a God who is worthy of all my love and all my life. It is living a balanced life in readiness for those occasions when we must go the extra mile, and give our cloaks as well as our shirts.

I’ll try again tomorrow morning.