Memorial of Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs

 Lectionary: 448

As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, 
and they fail to produce mature fruit.

Supposing that my readers enjoy a self-image similar to my own -- which is to say, "a pretty good fellow whose merits are out front, whose faults are apparent, who hopes he gets no worse, and is not not likely to change in any case" -- I direct our attention to this third warning about the seeds "choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and fail to produce mature fruit." 

We face that ennui or acedia so familiar to spiritual writers of ancient and contemporary literature. Wikipedia has a perceptive summary about it; and recalls its Old Testament reference to Psalm 91:6, "the plague that ravages at noon." The same verse in the Douay-Rheims translation reads, 

"...of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil."

I've heard it recently described as the fatigue of familiarity which is common to Christians of every denomination and age. I remember having daily Mass in one church. There were a certain number in the church to begin; and as the ritual proceeded others would show up at the same time they'd appeared the day before, and the week before, and the month before. As we finish the opening song, there is Jane walking up the right aisle. The Collect greets Bill in the center. As the first reading is heard, Joe comes in from the side door; and so forth. In the winter everyone dons their jackets and scarves during the closing prayer, if not before. 

On Sunday, before anyone leaves, parish announcements must be made immediately after Communion, while the congregation should be enjoying the Eucharistic Miracle in deep silence. Pastors sometimes post signs at the back door, "Judas was the first to leave Mass early!" 

But the priest-presiders are often no better, recounting the same three, tiresome homilies year after year, with the same cliches and anecdotes. Some always begin with a joke, no matter how irrelevant or long it takes. 

The fatigue of familiarity. The Noonday Devil. Acedia. Ennui. Call it what you will. Each one of us must challenge themself; we have to address it communally, and in both the forms of the Sacrament of Penance.

Frequent reading of spiritual and theological essays, articles, and books can help. Bible study discussion can arouse one's curiosity. Pilgrimages provide a variety of Catholic experience and windows into other spiritualities. As do meetings with younger, newer Christians. In conversation, we may have to encounter ideas that sound suspicious but nonetheless attract some people. Maybe there's something there. Spiritual writers often recommend the Lives of the Saint; there's thousands of them, and new ones added often. With more in the pipeline toward canonization. 

We can do better than to stagnate. We have only to apply ourselves, and remember the fate of the weeds which are bundled and burned for winter fuel. 

Finally, every morning, Psalm 95, the invitation to the Liturgy of the Hours, gets my attention, and I take it seriously:

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,

as on the day of Massah in the desert.

There your ancestors tested me;

they tried me though they had seen my works.

Forty years I loathed that generation;

I said: “This people’s heart goes astray;

they do not know my ways.”

Therefore I swore in my anger:

“They shall never enter my rest.”