When You Stop Falling You Will Be in Heaven

Some weeks ago I went to a special Mass prepared by a group of lay people to ask for God’s mercy on them and their families. The readings, the psalms and the prayers were chosen to echo the overall theme of asking God to give his loving mercy to all those present and to the whole world that would be lost without it. The visiting preacher came straight to the point. “Why waste your time praying for God’s loving mercy,” he said. “Whether you pray for it or not, his loving mercy has been sent out, is being sent out and will continue to be sent out whether you pray for it or not. Why not save your breath to pray that we will be given the strength to take the steps to receive it, by finding time to do so in our daily lives.”

In the Old Testament, the word hesed was used to describe the loving mercy of God. It has been translated by the Latin word gratia in the New Testament which gave birth to the English word grace. Fortunately, nothing is lost in translation, in fact, everything is gained. Now that the Holy Spirit has been sent, and is continually being sent, his love is no longer referred to as hesed but gratia, or grace.

It is the same love of God that revolved between the Father and the Son from and to eternity, but now, thanks to the glorified Christ, it is sent out by him to do something that was never needed before. For now, its power to forgive sins is seen, as this love is directed to sinful human beings to dispel the sinfulness that would otherwise keep God out.

That is why all the sacraments give grace, God’s loving mercy that first forgives the sins that would otherwise prevent him from making his home within us, as he promised at the Last Supper. There is only one thing that can prevent God from making his home within us and that is the sickness of sin and selfishness that does to the mystical body of Christ what high cholesterol does to the physical body. It must ultimately be controlled if not totally rooted out.

A Journey From Selfishness to Selflessness

In one way or another, we all must be purified of the selfishness that prevents the pure love of God from possessing us. The spiritual life is a journey from selfishness to selflessness because only a selfless person can become one with the utterly Selfless One, who is all pure, undiluted loving. This is a lengthy business that will be commensurate with the whole of our lives. Unless we make a genuine attempt to rid ourselves of the selfishness that keeps God out, we will make no spiritual progress. Unless we try to change our self-centred lives outside of prayer, our prayer itself will never develop beyond the most rudimentary stages. Even from a psychological point of view, if we have behaved badly all day, then prayer will be quite impossible at the end of that day.

Lord, That I May See

God wants us to do all that is within our power to strip away all and everything in our lives that prevents us from being totally united with him at all times. Only then will he be able to possess us as fully as he has planned. If we do not see the sin and the selfishness that prevents our growth in the spiritual life, it is not because we are sinless, it is simply because we are blind and we need to cry out with Bartimaeus, “Lord, that I may see” (Mark 10:46-52).

In one of the most memorable retreats I have ever attended, Archbishop Anthony Bloom began by telling the story of a retired headmistress who offered her services to him as a chauffeur. As they were returning home one Monday afternoon she stopped the car in Kensington to pick up her new glasses from the opticians and proceeded to try them out for the remainder of the journey. It was less than a mile, but it turned out to be the most terrifying journey either of them ever made; her driving was atrocious.  She climbed out of the car shaking all over, opened her handbag, took out her driving licence and ceremoniously ripped it into little pieces. “I’ll never drive again,” she said. “Why ever not?” asked the Archbishop. “Because,” she replied, “there is just so much traffic on the road.”

We Should Examine Our Consciences Each Evening

So, if we do not see it is because we are spiritually blind and need to do something about it. That is why we should examine our conscience each evening, to pause for a few moments to review the day we have just completed. This is the time to ask God to show us everything we have done or failed to do that has kept him out. For it is this selfishness that prevents him from making his home within us, as he would wish and as Jesus promised on the night before he died. After this has been done, it is time to make an Act of Contrition for how we have failed in the past. A formal act of contrition could be used, or perhaps the recitation of what came to be called the Jesus Prayer said several times over, slowly and prayerfully. “Jesus, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,” but a sincere expression of personal sorrow, in our own words would be better still. Then we could make a firm purpose of amendment, in other words, a genuine decision to try and behave better in future.

God’s Power Is At Its Best In Weakness

Finally, as we become a little more aware of the moral stumbling blocks that usually trip us up, it is time to try and forestall them. If there is a lazy streak in us, or if we have a hot temper, or are prone to making smart alec remarks at the expense of others, it is the time to take the necessary steps to avoid falling into these same faults in the forthcoming day. St Paul was the first to realize with such clarity that it is in fact our very weaknesses and that even includes our sins, that can become stepping stones to sanctity if they only convince us of our utter need for God. This is good news, because the truth is, in this life, we will never stop falling.

“When you stop falling you will be in heaven, but when you stop getting up, you will be in hell” (Peter Calvay).

The Great Secret Of The Spiritual Life

Only Our Lady was conceived without sin, which means that the rest of us are not. That is why we are continually falling both inside and outside of prayer, whether we like it or not, and that includes the saints too. The difference between them and us is not that they did not fall and we do, but that they learnt how to use their inevitable failures to their advantage.

St Paul was the first to pen what is in fact the great secret of the spiritual life. It is simply this, that God’s power works most perfectly in human weakness, gradually transforming it. That is why no one can progress in the spiritual life without the humility to know our weakness and our need for the only One who can help us.