Jesus Stands at the Door, Knocking

Jesus stands at the door, knocking (cf. Rev 3:20). Are we going to open the door for Him? Will we take advantage of the wonderful, freeing nature of His Sacrament of Reconciliation to restore and replenish our relationship with Him? And will we allow Him to abide in us as we abide in Him through the Holy Eucharist?

At least here, in the U.S., Masses have been opened up for a while—for a long while in some locales—so we all have the opportunity to return to Mass in person. We can receive the actual body and blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord, His Real Presence. No longer do we need to be content with a spiritual communion. Jesus tells us that He is the bread of life, that we who eat this bread will have eternal life. What an incredibly immense blessing to be able to do so!

Some Catholics may feel a bit uneasy with returning, what with all the hubbub about virus variants and the like. Perhaps the it’s just that the routine of weekly Mass attendance has been broken and it’s been hard to get back into the swing of things. No matter what the reason is, missing Sunday Mass can be a grave matter. This can break the relationship between one’s soul and the Lord. It can eliminate sanctifying grace in the soul. Not a good thing: if the beer truck were to run over you tomorrow, what would be the status of your soul?

Life Is Short

Life is short. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the obituary section of your local newspaper. On any given day, you’ll see notices for people of all ages, ranging from infants through great-grandparents. More and more it seems that we see the phrase “passed away unexpectedly.”

None of us knows when we’ll be called to leave this life. It could be today or tomorrow, or it could be months or years from now. What’s important is the nature of our relationship with God when our time is up. What kind of relationship do we, and our fallen away friends and family, have with Him and His Church when the day comes? Will the fallen away “come home” before then?

What’s It Going to Take to Come Home?

We each probably know far too many people who no longer participate in our rich Catholic faith. Some of them still believe in God, but do not participate in Mass or the sacraments regularly, if at all. Some may have drifted away to non-Catholic churches. Others simply have drifted away from any practice of faith. Each has his or her own reasons for doing so.

Nevertheless, it’s sad to see so many who no longer receive Jesus in Communion. It is sad to see how many are missing out on the joy and peace that only God can give. Likewise, are we not concerned on their behalf when we think about how some have closed themselves off to the graces provided by the sacraments Jesus gave for our salvation? What might it take for them to “come home” to the Church that Christ founded?

An Obstacle on the Path to Come Home

Many of us never really received catechesis that allows for an appreciation of the wonderful gift that our faith represents. Many may not know the truth of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. When we receive Communion, it truly is Jesus that we actually receive. If someone really believed and understood that, why would they not want to participate in the faith?

The Culture Keeps People from Coming Back

The culture tells us it’s all about fulfilling our every desire, seeking pleasure and happiness here and now. The ads tell us that we are now the source and end of all our efforts. If we’ve bought into that, we’ve just made ourselves little gods. The one, true God—the God of the universe—waits for us at our parish church. Unfortunately, the siren call of the secular world may seem more attractive than attending Mass or imitating Christ.

But imitating Christ’s love, His obedience to the Father and His humility will open us up to the graces of God. Being open to God, to union with Him, is what it’s all about.

Blaise Paschal referred to a vacuum created in our hearts that only God can fill:

…What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself. He only is our true good…  – Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII (425)

St. Augustine of Hippo says it more succinctly, “…for You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You…”

Our Decisions Make a Difference

Please, as you read and think about this, ponder the words of Pope St. John Paul II:

“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son Jesus.”

You and I are human; we all make mistakes. Mistakes of the past do not define us; our Father’s merciful love does. Through grace, you are reading this, and through grace, God is calling you to a renewed relationship with Him. With the Sacrament of Reconciliation, you have a new, fresh start available. That’s just one of the beautiful aspects of our Catholic faith. It makes it easier to turn back, and rebuild your relationship with God if you’ve been away from the faith—or away from Mass—for a while.

It Really Is Time to Come Home—Come Back to Mass for Starters

Why don’t more people “come home?” For some, it may be a matter of not knowing where to start, or feeling that too much “water has gone under the bridge.” The beauty of our Catholic faith is that no one will be refused admittance to the banquet.

No sin is too great—no number of missed Masses is too large—to be forgiven with a good Confession to a priest. 

Jesus stands at the door, knocking. He is calling each one of us. Are we going to open the door for Him? Will we take advantage of the wonderful, freeing nature of His Sacrament of Reconciliation to restore and replenish our relationship with Him? Will we return to Mass and Holy Communion?

(This post is a combination of an article, Come Home to the Church: You've Been Asked, that appeared originally on Catholic Stand in 2018, and portions of a booklet, An Invitation to Rediscover True Happiness, published in 2020. My thanks to my friend, Tom Mussio for his editorial suggestions on the booklet.)

Tighten Up Your Focus for Lent

So how will your Lent start off this year?  We’ve got a few days to get focused or refocused at this early stage and to create as, Matthew Kelly calls it, “The Best Lent Ever” Or, are we still thinking about getting “around to it?”  

The Heresy of Busyness

We must take caution to avoid becoming so busy that our prayer life suffers, or what a friend refers to as succumbing to the “heresy of busyness.”  Keep in mind that the evil one will set us up for failure in the most subtle ways.  As our men’s group heard from Fr. Larry Richards a few years ago, the father of lies will create attractive situations for us to draw us away from God.  Certain of these attractions can lead to sin of the worst kind, of course. 

But there’s more at risk.  We can be distracted from our relationship with Our Lord—from our prayer life—by the evil one when he appeals to what are arguably our higher, more pure motives.  For example, if we need approbation and like being in the spotlight, he’ll encourage us to work harder for the accolades.  

If we pride ourselves on being self-reliant and over-achievers, he’ll entice us to go out and get more involved in daily busy-work to prove just how “good” we are in doing our jobs, carrying out volunteer activities (even at church), increasing our intellectual prowess, and more.  

It’s a cunning trick he’s always trying to play on us.  And it leads to an incremental build up, so we’re not even aware of what’s going on until we stop, if we ever take time to do so, and reflect on where we’re going and realize how over-committed we are.

The Enemy Wants You To Be Over-Committed

It’s easy to be over-committed in these times, especially for families with children at home—between making a living, spending some time at home as a family, engaging in school activities, extra-curricular activities and shuttling to and from them, we’re often near maximum capacity with only a minimal amount of time left to devote to spiritual activities.  This also can be true for people who are empty nesters and grandparents as well—at the end of the day, it’s not uncommon to sit down exhausted, wondering where the day went.  

The evil one will present us with many, many opportunities to distract us from growing in our relationship with the Lord and getting to know Him better—and some of these opportunities will be for potentially good causes.  Only by prayerful discernment, at times augmented with some candid discussion with a spiritual director and/or a confessor, can we make the decisions that God wants us to, for His Greater Glory.

Less Is Better

Which leads me to the main point of this post:  This Lent, we ought to consider the maxim that “Less Is Better.”  No, that does not mean that we should minimize our prayer, penance and almsgiving practices this Lent!  Rather, we might benefit from a tighter focus on just what we ought to do.  In my coaching of executives and managers, one of the things I’ve found that stacks the odds in favor of success is to focus on a few key objectives with clearly identified metrics for success (metrics for success answer the question, “How are we going to know it’s working?”).  

This is more of a rifle shot approach than a shotgun approach.  Make some progress on the initial, key goals, and then and only then, add in another goal or two.  We all have only 24 hours in the day, and we all have limits to the energy we can devote to any and all matters we need to address.  So what one or two things is God calling each of us to really work on this Lent?

Choose Wisely

As well, what approach to prayer and meditation will we use this Lent?  Keep in mind that, at Lent, the Catholic book publishers and video producers come out of the woodwork with offerings to help us have a better (or “the best”) Lent, in addition to standard favorites such as the Divine Office and Magnificat, etc.  Any one of the many available Lenten prayer products could be of help to us.  Consider, for example, the Little Black Books, Dynamic Catholic’s “The Best Lent Ever,” Bishop Barron’s Lenten reflections, “40 Days to Mercy” from the MIC group, and we could go on and on. 

Spend Time With The Lord

But—getting back to the point of this post—we can be overwhelmed with Lenten prayer approaches and reading materials if we aren’t selective.  We actually could end up spending more time reading multiple Lenten prayer pamphlets or e-mails than we do talking with, and listening to, the Lord.  

The bottom line: we each might benefit from finding one approach we like and sticking with it, leaving adequate time for relational prayer this Lent.

Don’t let the evil one throw you off your spiritual game.  Get focused—stay focused—and truly have your best Lent ever!