By Father Rich Tomkosky
What is Saint John the Baptist’s message to the people of his time and for all time? The three R’s: REPENTANCE – REFORM – RENEWAL.
He challenges the Pharisees and us to show good spiritual fruit in our lives. Where is the evidence of a purpose of amendment to turn away from the old life of sin to a new life of virtue in Christ?
An old spiritual maxim is “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” We must do the good not simply think about the good! Advent is a good time to look at this and make some necessary adjustments.
But we need God’s help to do that. On our own we are too weak to be consistent in our good resolutions. We need the infused gifts of grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to have the strength to not simply know the good, but to choose it, consistently.
God wants to give us grace, His own life, to help us grow in holiness, which simply means doing His will in all the varied circumstances of life, big and small. We receive an increase in the gift of Sacramental grace when we receive the Sacraments with faith, and with a proper spiritual disposition, namely, not being in the state of mortal sin.
We also receive actual graces: those daily helps to resist evil and choose good, each day, in ever more abundance the more we pray and open our hearts to God. This is why Saint Paul says we are never tried beyond our strength (see 1 Corth 10:13). The grace is always given to choose the good, if only we open our hearts to it, especially in the midst of temptation to do evil.
God is so kind! Not only does He give us Sacramental grace and actual grace to help us choose goodness, but He pours out His own Holy Spirit on us to help us grow in holiness.
This occurs through the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit, which we hear about in the book of the Prophet Isaiah, and which we first receive in the Sacrament of Baptism and they are given in more abundance in Confirmation. They are:
The fear of the Lord: it enables us to have reverence for God and the things of God, and to realize that He is the ultimate judge of our lives and we will have to give an ultimate account of our life to Him some day;
Piety: it gives us the desire to have a personal relationship with God, to grow in ever deeper union with Him, and to be attracted to and love the things of God: e.g. Mass, Confession, praying, and doing works of charity – loving our neighbor because we love God (the Great Commandment fulfilled);
Fortitude: it gives us the strength to carry out God’s will and our resolutions to do good, even in the midst of great opposition from life and other people;
Counsel: it enables us to give sound advice to others on matters of good and evil, based on God’s standards, not man’s;
Knowledge: it is the gift that gives us a sound sense of the difference between true good and true evil, again according to the Lord’s view, not human being’s view, which often confuses good and evil according to our fallen whims;
Understanding: it gives us true insight into the “things of God” i.e., the mysteries of our Catholic faith on an ever-deeper level over time;
Finally the gift of Wisdom: it enables us to see everything in our life from God’s perspective on high and lets us “taste” in a mystical way the sweetness of the Lord and the “things of God.” – e.g., when you have that sweet peace in your soul after making a very good Confession with a purpose of amendment, or sometimes when you receive Holy Communion with great faith and devotion and you can sense the Lord dwelling in you afterwards at least for a few minutes, sometimes longer.
These mystical graces are a foreshadowing of the total peace and union with the Blessed Trinity in Heaven and they flow directly from the highest gift of the Holy Spirit- wisdom.
What an awesome privilege of God’s love to receive His grace and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit to enable us to REPENT, REFORM our lives, and be RENEWED in Christ!
Finally for this transformation in Christ to occur, we need lots of the virtue of patience. Pray for this gift on a daily basis. Remember this transformation in holiness does not happen immediately when we desire it, although for it to occur we must desire and passionately seek the Lord and His will in all areas of our life. No settling for spiritual mediocrity!
Why doesn’t it happen immediately? Well, because we all suffer from the effects of original sin. Our minds are darkened, our wills are weakened, and our hearts are hardened, in a way that the Lord did not originally intend when He created the human race. And so, we tend to focus on the passing things we see, even if they are sinful and bad for us.
Fortunately, the eternal Son of God became one of us, which we will celebrate on Christmas, to save us from this sad reality. We now have the opportunity because of the Incarnation of Christ, and His subsequent Passion, Death and Resurrection, to be created anew in Him. If only we turn to Him in love.
Growing in holiness is a life-long process, but each day we must “fight the good fight” against the powers of darkness, our weak nature, and death; otherwise, we will slip backwards toward eternal darkness.
Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Confession specifically to help us in the daily fight against sin and evil, both in terms of healing and strength and forgiveness of our past sins. Receive it frequently and devoutly in order to make spiritual progress in holiness.
Remember, on our own we CAN’T win the battle with the devils, evil, and sin; but with Christ, He can win the battle in us! That should be a source of great HOPE in our lives (read Pope Benedict’s XVI’s beautiful encyclical letter: Spe Salvi: On Christian Hope). Then the Messianic reality and image we hear about in the prophet Isaiah of order and goodness will come true in our lives, through REPENTANCE, REFORM, and Spiritual RENEWAL; beginning now, and brought to completion in the fullness of life to come in eternity with Purgatory, if needed, and then finally in Heaven in the fullness of Truth, Love, Goodness, and Beauty in perfect union the Blessed Trinity in company with Our Blessed Mother Mary and all the angels and saints. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
