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Use the Superior Motivations to Really Strengthen your Will
Homily St. Joseph Parish, Detroit
Today, I want to bring the beatitudes to a meditation on our freedom, and on the exercise of our will. For God made man free, able to know good and evil, and free to chose what was good of his own deciding. Yet man abused his freedom in Adam, and chose what was evil. Ever since then, we, the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, have also chosen evil on many occasions, by our sins. The proclamation of the beatitudes in Matthew Chapter five, as foretold in Jeremiah 17 when he said, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,” renews our hope, that we can convert our will with the help of Christ’s grace, and we should never fall into despair. St. Justin Martyer (100/110 – c. 165) used the very fact that man will be judged and admitted to heaven or cast into hell as a proof of man’s freedom. Notice, he used revelation to prove what human reason could discover, and he did so because God revealed the truth, and he can neither deceive nor be deceived. St. Justin said, “If fate decrees that this man is to be good, and that one wicked, then neither is the former to be praised nor the latter to be blamed.” Then he quotes Deuteronomy 30:15, “Behold, before your face, the good and the evil. Choose the good.” So indeed, we are free, and God invites us clearly in Scripture, “Choose the good.” Brothers and sisters, I beg you as your brother in Christ, and as a priest of God, choose the good! Indeed, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that spiritual perfection consists in always choosing the good, when he writes, “It belongs to the perfection of the moral or human good that the passions be governed by reason,” (STh I-II-24,1) But alas, I know you all want to, but that you fail, and I do too, for we are all sinners. We want to choose what is good, and “our spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” as Jesus said in Gethsemane (Mt 24:41; Mk 14:38), while he exhorted the sleepy apostles to be alert and awake, and so overcome temptation. So the words of Jesus thunder forth in the noise of our minds, “Blessed are they!” And so he stokes our weak wills. The light of the truth of Christ bursts forth in our conscience when the Son of God proclaims, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God!” And our wills are turned from impurity to purity. And from despair to laughter. And from greed to poverty. And from slavery to freedom, the freedom of the sons of God (Rom 8:21), for it was the truth which Jesus Christ revealed which set us free. Therefore, our goal is to make our wills the master of our souls, so that we not be slaves to our passions. And when the will embraces what the intellect discovers as true, then we grow in spiritual perfection. But how are we to do this? For when Jesus sets forth this standard of perfection, “Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the persecuted,” he associates the supreme happiness to real situations of suffering. We want the “blessed” part, but we don’t want the “poor, hungry and persecuted” part. Nonetheless, he is not afraid to tell us to pursue poverty, hunger and persecution, because this is the way to blessedness, to true happiness, just as the cross was the only dreadful road to the glory of the resurrection. Our wills are such that man doesn’t do something for nothing. We have a reason for doing all the things we do. What are the motives of my actions? For example, are they good and pure, or vain and greedy? The reason we do something is called the “motivation” for which we do it. There are two classes of motivations, two headings under which we can group them all, let’s call them “inferior motivations” and “superior motivations.” Inferior motivations are those when we do something because it makes us feel good, or it gratifies one of our senses, or it delights our imagination, or it excites our emotions, or it enflames our passions… in a word, it entices our senses and sensibilities. Many people start out on the path of following Jesus Christ because it gratifies their sensitivity. “I follow Jesus,” they say, “because it makes me feel good. Because it makes me happy to know I’m helping someone else. Because it makes me think better of myself.” These motives are not always evil, but they are not perfect. And so when one sets out on the spiritual life, at the beginning, God often pours upon that soul sensible consolations, great fervor, wonderful feelings, tangible joy. But there is a higher set of motivations, that is, when one does something for the simple reason that it is good, true or honorable, because it is high minded and faith says this is the way to go. Instead of being motivations of one’s sensibilities, they are motivations of one’s spirit. These are the motivations which are strongest and endure trial. These are the motivations for which couples persevere long years in marriage. These are the motivations which can help a soul endure poverty, hunger, weeping and persecutions for love of Christ. And so in the beatitudes, Jesus reminds us to look at the higher motivations, and pursue the greater gifts than what sensibility provides. He even invites us to mortify and crucify our comfort and feelings. He invites us to meditate in prayer on the crucifixion, not just meditation on the sensitive aspects of the beatings and humiliations he endured for our sins, but much more to meditate on the greater truths of redemption, salvation, atonement, sin and grace. I know many souls who pray thinking about passing things. I know very few souls who pray meditating on atonement. Some meditate on the pain of the nails, few meditate on the fact that I am a sinner. Many meditate on their own happiness now, but few on the happiness to come. Many use their prayer time to justify everything they do, few have the guts to meditate on sin and what it means for me to be a sinner. When we meditate on these higher things, and not just the things which appeal to our senses and feelings, our will begins to exercise the mastery it should. The Catechism says, “Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts,” (CCC 1734) effectively giving us three ways in which to strengthen our wills. So do not be afraid if your will is weak. The promises of Jesus will give you hope, and your hope will convert into strength. Therefore, meditate on the things that are above, use your minds to penetrate on all that is truly good, and your wills will be strengthened to overcome sin and lead a blessed life. Amen. |