Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (July 30, 2018): Is your sainthood growing?

In today’s first reading, God warns us that pride rots our relationship with him. Even if we go to church, even if we pray, even if we think we’re spiritually okay, if we serve any master other than God or if we refuse to listen to our Savior on any matter, our spiritual pride and our doing-it-my-way attitude deteriorates our unity with him.

Although we really do love Jesus, something in our sainthood, which was given to us by God in our baptisms, gets buried in the dank darkness where it begins to rot. The longer we stay in this condition, the more dangerous it becomes to our spirits and to the Church (the earthly Body of Christ). The holier we are, the holier the Church is, and this impacts the world around us.

This is true, too, if we misuse or fail to use the gifts and talents that God has called us to share for the building up of the Church and the improvement of the world: Our mediocrity deteriorates our unity with Christ’s dreams and desires for making the world a better, holier place.

If the Lord shows us an area of sin and we refuse to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation or we neglect to do the hard work of purifying our lives, the darkness we prefer rots our unity with the Christ’s Spirit of Holiness. Is that what we really want?

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus invites us to grow anew where we’ve been rotting — to grow as fast and big as a mustard plant. One way to do this is to read the lives of Saints. Like us, they had areas of rot in their lives. Like us, they wanted to become closely intimate with the Lord. Like us, they wanted to please the Lord, because they loved him and appreciated what he had done for them. And like us, they needed to grow in holiness.

What are you doing today that might rot your relationship with God? Do the television shows and the reading material you choose or the friendships you have work against intimate union with Christ?

What’s working like yeast in the dough of your Christian faith?

Many years ago, a back injury confined me to bed for three days. I used that time to read a book, from cover to cover, on the lives of Saints, and I emerged from this “bedroom retreat” a changed person. Prior to this incident, I had been asking Jesus to teach me how to love everyone as he loves everyone. By reading the stories of Saints, all of whom loved others passionately the mustard seed of this desire was watered and fertilized. It grew like a mustard tree in only three days. We cannot immerse ourselves in the lives of Saint after Saint after Saint without gaining new growth in holiness.

Put aside whatever distracts you from your relationship with Christ. Whether we admit it or not, everything we take into our minds does affect us. We either starve our mustard trees or nourish them.

I praise You, Lord, for the wonders You work in my life and for those I have not seen yet, but which You have reserved for me. Amen.