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“The first commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“Many men keep the commandments in the way sick men take medicine: more from fear of dying in damnation than for joy of living according to our Savior’s will. Just as some persons dislike taking medicine - no matter how pleasant it may be – simply because it is called medicine, so there are some souls who hold in horror things commanded simply because they are commanded. By contrast, a loving heart loves the commandments. The more difficult they are the sweeter and more agreeable it finds them since this more perfectly pleases the beloved and gives him great honor. It pours forth and sings great hymns of joy when God teaches it to his commandments and justifications. The pilgrim who goes on his way joyously singing adds the labor of singing to that of walking, and yet by this increase of labor he actually lessens his weariness and lightens the hardship of the journey.” (TLG, Book VIII, Chapter 5, pp. 67-68)
When you boil it all down, Jesus gives us two – just two – commandments to follow: love God; love your neighbor as yourself. At one in the same time these two commandments are not too much to ask even if they ask us to give them our all!
What better way of taking our medicine to good effect – and being medicinal in the lives of others – than by living these commandments joyfully?
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“One who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work…”
It has been said that practice makes perfect. Put another way, practice leads to competence.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines competent as:
1. Having requisite or adequate ability or qualities: fit
2. Qualified or adequate
3. Having the capacity to function or develop in a particular way
4. Having the capacity to respond.
Synonyms include able, capable, equal, fit, good, qualified, suitable, on the ball.
Recall Francis de Sales’ description of devotion: “To be good we must have charity, and to be devout – in addition to charity – we must have great ardor and readiness in performing charitable actions.” (IDL, Part I, Chapter 1, p. 40)
In the opinion of St. Paul – in the mind of St. Francis de Sales – following Jesus requires more than simply doing good things; it requires that we be good at doing good things. How do we acquire the requisite or adequate ability to be good at doing good? How can we grow in our ability to be equipped to accomplish every good work in every good way? How do we make strides in our training in righteousness? Recall the punch line to the question: “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Broadway?”
Answer: “Practice, practice, practice.”
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“Be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient…”
In his Introduction to the Devout Life St. Francis de Sales exhorted:
“Be patient not only with regard to the big, chief part of difficulties that may come to you but also as to things and accidents accompanying them. Many people would be ready to accept trials provided they were not inconvenienced by them. ‘I wouldn’t be bothered by poverty,’ one man says, ‘if it didn’t keep me from helping my friends, educating my children and living as respectably as I’d like.’ ‘It wouldn’t bother me,’ another says, ‘if people didn’t think it was my own fault.’ Another would be willing to suffer patently false reports about him provided that no one believed his detractor. Others are willing to endure part of an evil, so they think, but not the whole of it. They say that they don’t complain about being ill but about their lack of money to get cured or because they are so much bother to those around them. Now I say that we must have patience not merely at being ill but at having the illness that God wishes, where he wishes, among the people he wishes and with whatever difficulties he wishes.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 3, p. 129)
Many people would be ready to accept trials provided they were not inconvenienced by them. This statement sounds like the restaurant owner who says: “Business would be great if it weren’t for the customers,” or the teacher who opines that, “My job would be great if it weren’t for the students.”
In what ways might I be a “sunshine patriot” when it comes to following Jesus? Do I follow him when it’s easy, but head for the hills when it’s tough? Imagine if Jesus only helped people when it was convenient for him! Where would that have left the people of his day?
Where would that leave us in our day?
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