Spiritual Perfection

The Spiritual Life (5)

SPIRITUAL PERFECTION


We enter now a field where there is great possibility of misunderstanding. The word "perfect," is from the Latin: "per," implying "fullness" or perhaps "thoroughness," and "facere" meaning "to make." So perfect gives the idea of something fully made or fully completed. All life must perfect itself or go forward in a process of renewal and improvement. So also the spiritual life. Our final perfection is in heaven but we can prepare for it on earth - indeed, we must.


But first a brief look at some mistakes we may make, seeking perfection where it cannot be found. We can mistake "devotions" for "devotion." We may think that perfection consists in reciting a great number of prayers, in making many pilgrimages, in joining all sorts of pious societies, in listening to many religious programs on tv or radio, etc. This is to substitute the non-essentials for the necessary. We can give ourselves to fasting and sacrifices, injuring our health and at the same time becoming bad- tempered, nasty, unpleasant and hard to live with. Not to talk of being unable to do a full day's work. This is to forget the essentials of perfection and neglect the basic duty of charity in favor of practices which may be good but are far less important. We can give generously to charitable causes but perhaps forget to pay our debts or forgive our enemies. We can confuse spiritual
consolations with genuine fervor and think we have arrived at perfection when we
are filled with joy and can pray with ease. Or we condemn ourselves when we are
harassed by distractions which may not be our fault. We may have read the Lives of he Saints where ecstacies and visions are described and feel that perfection consists In these extraordinary events and strain our minds and imagination to have them. But the Saints tell us that such phenomena do not constitute the essence of sanctity and that it is very unwise to desire to have them. A far more certain guide to our sanctity, or the lack of it, is our conformity - or the lack of it - to the will of God.>br />

What, therefore, is this "perfection" we would like to have? The question covers everything that exists, not just us and our quest for "holiness" or "wholeness." St. Thomas Aquinas tells us: Each being / created thing, is perfect when it attains fully the end for which it was made. This, he says, is absolute perfection. There is also, of course, relative or progressive perfection which, in our own case, consists in the approach towards that goal by doing all that we think we should do without making the mistakes already listed. What does this "perfection" consist in when we talk of you and me? It is something tremendous, unspeakable: we were made by God and for God! We creatures of clay are destined to enjoy after death not just what we call a "natural" happiness (our present life but without any of its many disadvantages), but a supernatural happiness, a share in the very life of God Himself to the extent that we can share. When we have said this we understand immediately why nothing on earth can satisfy us, can make us fully and completely and permanently happy. We are designed for another destiny and will never find on earth anything to fulfill us permanently. God alone is capable of completely satisfying our endless desire for happiness. This is why, talking of perfection, we must make an intense effort to know, love and serve God and thereby to glorify Him; in return He will glorify us or lead us to a situation of endless joy and fulfillment. Because this is the goal in life of every human being, whether he or she knows about God or not, we cannot do it in our natural state - we are just animals like the others. But God wishes to raise all of us to what we call the supernatural state and this takes place for Christians at the moment of their baptism. Totally unable to draw close to God even if we have heard about Him, He Himself graciously draws close to us and not just to shake our hands and acknowledge our existence, but to make Himself an integral part of our human nature. At the Last Supper the Lord referred to this in language which doubtless went over the heads of the apostles, like all the rest he said, but which is today much clearer to us: On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. (John 14, 20-21). This situation is so marvellous and so far beyond the wildest of our imaginings that it is not surprising that the vast majority of Christians - as I mentioned already several times - know their birthdays but in nine cases out of ten could not name their baptismal day even if they were asked the question on "The Price is Right" or some similar program. Indeed, this was my own situation up to the time we were ordained Subdeacons (a stage before Ordination that no longer exists), and we had to produce evidence that we were baptized. I had always taken January 20 as my birthday and so my baptism would have been perhaps January 23 (note the vagueness). But when I received my "baptismal lines" I found that I had been born on January 7 and baptized on January 10! So I'm two weeks older than you thought (no wonder I have aged so much!). But, getting back to the marvellous Gift of God, we now can formulate a simple rule of thumb for perfection: living for God in union with our Divine Master. Simple, but not easy, because we still have to correct our defects which limit our degree of union with the Lord, and practice the virtues also in union with him. Nevertheless this awareness of the Lord's presence is a wonderful consolation.


We are not alone! The Master is the greatest and most powerful Friend we will ever have. Nor is his Presence something vague and hard to pin down. Not so. The Lord IS us - at least he would like to be - and we are the Lord's! When we think, speak or act (in any way as long as what we do is not sinful) the Master identifies with us and - to put it like that - takes us over a little more. On the other hand when we think, speak or act sinfully, he is slightly "ousted" from his desire to possess us fully. All day long the Risen Lord is in every Christian - except unfortunately the huge numbers in our time who have thrown him out by serious sin - loving, wanting to be more and more united, helping, inspiring, guiding, protecting one more human being who, in his plans, is far, FAR above the purely human appearances and situations. After all, God made Man lived and worked in Nazareth for twenty years and nobody had the slightest idea who he really was! It follows, therefore, that the more we keep in conscious contact with the Lord, the more effectively we are living our Christian lives and are - as far as human beings can be - more or less perfect. This process has various stages.


1) We begin our day with our Pauline prayers, thanking him for the night, good or bad as it might be. But we are talking of PRAYER, viz our personal contact with him which may mean just one or two prayers said slowly and reverently. I hope by now that we have all given up the insane practice of dashing through all the different formulae as if there were a prize for the speediest recitation. No, dear members, NO! NO!! Would you read the Master an address of welcome if he suddenly appeared before you? Say less prayers by all means but with more attention.


2) During the day, as your duties allow, turn deliberately to the Master and relate to him according to you present circumstances. Deliberately take even five seconds to recognize his presence. This is possible for everyone. If the Master were to forget you, what do you think would happen? You'd simply disappear!


3) Because the Institute vocation is to be lived mostly in the family or workplace, you can find the Master just as effectively in your office or schoolroom or hospital ward as in the church. If you have time for Mass and/or the Pauline Visit, good for you. But we are Institute people, not Religious.


4) The Master lives in you and me but also in him and her. Thus we contact him most effectively to the extent that we relate to others in a Christ-like way. Other points could be made but it is not by making points but by putting into practice the points we are already aware of which makes for the perfect Christian. The perfect Institute member has a special point to keep in mind. He or she has made a special, Church- regulated commitment to relate to the Master in a more intense way and, in our case, keeping in mind the special evangelical goals of our Pauline Family.The Master, living in me and you, is also out there " on the front lines" with brothers and sisters actually engaged in the editorial or technical apostolate. The effectiveness of their activity is, fundamentally, linked to their unity with the Master in them. Because you and I are united to the same Master, clearly we are not just "on the outside looking in" but are fully engaged and effectively in the entire Pauline apostolate. Our Divine Master is the Evangelizer - indeed, the only one - and we can support and sustain our brothers and sisters very effectively by living closely in union with the Master in us and asking him to make their work - which is also our work - fruitful for the people they actually contact. Have we wandered away from the subject of "Perfection." Not in the least. Perfection is individual but not just individual. St. Thomas says: "Essentially the perfection of the Christian life consists in charity first and foremost in the love of God, then in the love of one's neighbor." But in this life the love of God cannot be practiced without renouncing our in-built love of self and so in practice love requires sacrifice - it required sacrifice on the part of the Master and it requires sacrifice on our part also.


(continued)



"I strongly suspect that if we
saw all the difference even
the tiniest of our prayers to God
make, and all the people those
little prayers were destined
to affect, and all the consequences
of those effects down through
the centuries, we would be so
paralyzed with awe at the power
of prayer that we would be unable
to get up off our knees for the
rest of our lives."


-Peter Kreeft, .,
The Integrated Catholic Life