by Jim Beckman, Executive Director of the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis
“Christians can wrongly think that the kingdom of heaven is fundamentally of this world, that its strength can be measured by its visible manifestations. As a result, they too often attempt to maintain worldly influence at the expense of genuine spiritual strength . . . Holiness, prayer, humility, hidden acts of charity are the spiritual means by which the Church is visibly upheld.
When these are diminished, the outward expressions of the Church’s life grow tenuous and liable to failure. The Church is never in a more fragile situation than when she seems strong but has lost her deep rootedness in the invisible world” (“From Christendom to Apostolic Mission,” pg. 24).
The above statement captures a fundamental truth that I believe, and way back in my mind I know, but I must admit that my confidence in it clearly has diminished. You can tell by my actions! We easily can fall into the human trap of thinking that our work, our efforts, are what is really going to move things forward. The reality is that everything we do, including prayer, is possible only because of God’s gracious assistance.
There is a famous quote often attributed to Saint Augustine, “Pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you.”
There is speculation about the quote and its interpretation. Some say it was Saint Ignatius of Loyola who said it, not Augustine; paragraph #2834 of the Catechism does exactly that. Trent Horn from Catholic Answers says that “there are others who argue that this quote is a mistranslation of the authentic Ignatian saying, ‘Let your first rule of action be to trust in God as if success depended entirely on yourself and not on him: but use all your efforts as if God alone did everything, and yourself nothing.’ (In other words, what Saint Ignatius really said was, ‘Pray as though everything depended on you, and act as if everything depended on God’)” (Catholic Answers, “Saint Ignatius Said What?”).
The valuable principle to be gained, though, is twofold: 1) Our first efforts always needs to be toward prayer, trusting ourselves and the work before us to God and recognizing that without him we can do nothing (John 15:5); and 2) But, God also gives us gifts and talents that he desires us to use to cooperate with him in accomplishing the work.
Sitting back and praying all the time and leaving everything up to God alone is a heresy. The 17th century Quietist heresy taught that man’s ultimate goal was to achieve “perfect quiet” and be so united to God in prayer that he did not have a single other thought. Quietists literally prayed as if everything depended on God and did nothing else. However, trusting in human effort alone is also a heresy, that of Pelagianism.
What I have realized and have been drawn to is a reawakening of the “first efforts toward prayer.” If we don’t start there, everything else we do can begin to go off track. We need God’s grace in every area of our lives, in our families, and especially in the Church today.
In these difficult times, we need to be praying more, interceding more, lifting up our archbishop and our priests more. The quote that I started with is from a book I have been reading the past six months or so, “From Christendom to Apostolic Mission.” I’m sure I will be talking about this book a lot in the coming months – it has had a profound impact on me.
One of the key strategies that the book recommends in what it calls the “apostolic times” in which we are currently living is to “refuse to be trapped by social analysis” (Pg. 39). We can find ourselves looking at our current circumstances and be completely overwhelmed. How are we ever going to get the Church back to what it used to be? How are we going to get people to simply come back to Mass? The sociological statistics are a whole lot of doom and gloom.
We must never forget, though, that all these studies leave out the miracle of faith and the activity of the Holy Spirit. As the book says, “What sociological survey could have predicted the conversion of an ancient and sophisticated civilization at the hands of a small group of uneducated laborers? What numerical analysis could have surmised the explosion of the monastic movement? Or the conversion of all the pagan peoples of Europe? Or the appearance of a Saint Francis and his thousands of followers in a few short years? Or the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the conversion of Mexico? Or, for that matter, the conversion of a single soul?
What sociological study can gauge the presence of the Holy Spirit or the power of prayer? From its first appearance, the Church has been a massive surprise; in every age its existence a standing miracle” (“From Christendom to Apostolic Mission,” pgs. 39-40).
Lent is a great time for this reawakening, a great time for more prayer. As we continue our Lenten journey, I invite you to join me. Let’s take extra time for prayer, for more rosaries asking for Mary’s help and intercession, for more time before the Blessed Sacrament, on our knees begging God for his miraculous intervention.
We all have heard one study after another that tells us “they won’t come back,” “a full two-thirds of Catholics do not believe in the real presence in the Eucharist,” and “the new normal is a much smaller Catholic Church.” Let’s spend the rest of our Lent begging God for a greater outpouring of his Holy Spirit and the grace of conversion throughout our archdiocese!