One of the most important of aspects of recovery and the pursuit of spiritual strength is perseverance.  Persistent, healthy actions under the guidance of grace enable a disciple of the Lord to walk this narrow road.  The Early Church Fathers were fond of comparing spiritual work with physical work.  For example, if I start exercising to make my physical muscles stronger, but do it only sporadically, then I quickly become fatigued and easily quit.  I might even hurt myself.  If I never put forth an effort, the muscles atrophy and are useless.  However, if I start with a workable program—something doable—and remain true to that routine, then I soon acquire physical rejuvenation and can regularly build on this simple program and acquire even more strength.

So it is in the moral and spiritual domain.  The key: regular attendance to the work we know must be done.  If I kick back on days that I’m starting to “feel better” or am “too busy” or suddenly feel “I wasn’t in that bad of shape,” then the vice returns, and often with a vengeance.  Aquinas rightly pointed out that virtue and vice are both habits.  If we want to get rid of a bad habit, undertake a good habit.  And a habit, by its very definition, is  “a thing done often and hence, usually, done easily.”

Now, this certainly entails more than the mere flipping on of a switch in order to make a machine run.  Factors such as will and sin, etc. are also part of the equation.  However, we must not underestimate the individual’s ability to do, to take right action, especially in light of the fact that his/her life has become unmanageable and a surrender to God’s will and power has feebly been admitted.

Another aspect to this analogy is “working out” with others.  How often have we piled up exercise equipment in the basement or given up a New Year’s resolutions once the newness of the fervor has worn off?  It is always helpful to have support and coaching in this endeavor.  So it is with our spiritual advances.  Beyond the need for others from the perspective of this analogy, we are created in the image of the one Triune God.  In order to embody the wholeness we seek, the effort put forth is best realized in the Body of the Faithful, the Church.  The weaker members need the strength of others in difficult times in order to persevere and so be healed.  It is sometimes an awkward step, but a vital one. 

 Sustaining the effort to ask for help in times of need is not a weakness, but rather, an acknowledgment of the truth…and truth sets us free.  We need one another in order to grow in grace and in the likeness of Christ.  That’s how we are designed according to the order of the Divine Will.  Regular accountability to someone else is essential in the pursuit of holiness and wholeness.

 Stating the above doesn’t mean that at times we won’t find it difficult to be true to Christ.  It doesn’t mean that we will effortlessly be triumphant in the face of temptation.  What it does mean is that in those moments of sorrow, aloneness and trial, simple reminders of the work that needs to be done to overcome addiction—from within and from those who support us—is the means by which God’s loving grace takes hold of us in this time of need. 

 -Fr. Jim

Reader's please note that this is the first of what we hope to be many contributing articles by Father Jim.