What are the enemies of my perseverance in following Jesus?
Perseverance is a grace from God, which requires our full response.
"Jesus did not choose me for that. He chose me... because He did so, because he wanted to." There were others among our Lord's people, others who were closer to him, but He remembered me.”
God, who called us, will give us the means to respond faithfully to his subsequent calls, until our very last breath. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
“Along the way - yours and mine - I see only one difficulty, appearing in different forms, which we have to fight against constantly ..."
That difficulty is the danger of becoming "bourgeois", in our professional or spiritual life, selfish people devoid of love...
There are usually two clear symptoms of this difficulty and danger: lukewarmness and inconstancy in the apostolate and concern for others.
The root of temptations against perseverance can be of many kinds. Sometimes, it is the bad example of someone we thought to be very holy. Or that brother or sister, who was God's instrument to draw us closer to Jesus, weakens and doesn't respond to grace.
No, don't hesitate. From such sad cases, we must draw deep-rooted humility to strengthen our own determination.
At other times, concupiscence disguises itself as refinement, poetry, or even spirituality.
Very often, the temptation is cowardice: “I'm weak. I know myself. It's true that, thanks to God's mercy, I don't offend him as a rule. But... these daily struggles! Always on the edge of the precipice. I'm afraid to give myself... and then fall. I'm not worthy to give myself entirely to God."
“Your humility, my son, has only the appearance of humility. You think you are exceptional: that you alone have to struggle or, at any rate, that the struggles of others are not like yours."
“Do you really think that the saints did not, and do not, have to conquer in battles as big as your daily battles, or even bigger ones? If that were the case, the saints would be abnormal. They would be clinical cases to be studied by a modernistic doctor or a psychologist eagerly looking for deformities."
What is happening to you happens to everyone. And it will go on like that until the end of your mortal life, so that you may not become proud.
“You said, and you were right, that by God's mercy you don't offend him. Don't you see that if you cast your cowardice aside and give yourself to him completely, He will have for you all the mercy you need? Don't you hear Christ telling you, as he told the Apostle: My grace is sufficient for you?"
Our Lord gives us his grace to persevere. He only asks us to employ the means. In the first place, to be truly prayerful souls. We attain this by means of the Norms of piety.
Besides leading a life of piety, we have to flee from occasions of sin, guard our hearts, and never give in to the "dumb devil."
Devotion to our Blessed Lady will help us to be very faithful to our calling.
Nov 15 Sat