Far too many of us, myself included, are not good at being persistent on what matters. Sure, we might persist in doing something we absolutely have to do, such as an assignment for school or some requirement for our job, and we’re pretty good about being persistent in those things we enjoy, like sports or recreational activities. How many of us put the same persistence into our spiritual lives that we put towards other, less important aspects of our lives?
Jesus tells us in our Gospel today that we need to be persistent in the practice of our faith. He doesn’t say that the widow would approach the judge once in a while, like once a week or once a month, but that she persisted in her requests for the just judgment. We need to be just as persistent in our spiritual lives. If we are persistent in living our lives as Christian disciples, our faith will grow stronger, but if we become lax in our discipleship, not allowing our discipleship to influence how we live our lives, our faith becomes stagnant and eventually dies.
There is no level ground in the spiritual realm. We either continue our climb towards God or will slide back away from Him. When my family and I were living in Williston, ND, during my elementary school years, there was a gravel plant close to my house. My friends and I would go and play on the piles of gravel during the weekends when no one was working at the plant. To climb these piles of gravel, we had to climb as hard as we could without stopping. To stop meant either to sink in a little ways, which made it harder to start again, or slide backwards down the loose slope.
The spiritual life is very much like climbing that gravel pile. If we are persistent in the practice of our Christian discipleship, we will continue up that slope. We need to regularly engage in the practices of prayer and Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. We need to be involved in spiritual activities, which include reception of the Sacraments of Holy Communion and Confession and devotions like the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and Eucharistic Adoration.
It’s also essential that we persist in learning more about the faith which has been passed on to us. While Religion classes at Catholic school or CCD programs at parishes pass on the basics of what we believe, there is far more to what has been revealed by Christ. A geologist can learn a lot about a mountain from a few small samples of rock, but there is still far more to learn by studying the mountain itself. In the same way, our CCD or Religion classes were just the start of learning about this great and wonderful mountain we call the Christian faith.
There is often a comparison made between the persistence needed to succeed in sports and the persistence required to live a Christian life, and with good reason. Some of the best-known athletes in the history of professional sports haven’t been those with natural talent for whom the sport came easy. Instead, the most admired athletes are those who persisted despite some adversity or difficulty in their lives, and succeeded in a way no one imagined they ever could.
Those who are held up as the great spiritual masters are also not those for whom the spiritual life has been easy, but rather those for whom it has been difficult. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta was said to have spent much of her life without any consolation in prayer, not receiving any feeling or emotion from her prayer, yet lived a long life as an example of Christian discipleship. St. Monica spent many years in anguish, praying for her son who had left the practice of the Catholic faith, only to see him return 6 months before she died. Her son, St. Augustine, is now known as one of the great teachers and theologians of the Catholic Church, much to the credit of St. Monica’s persistence in prayer on his behalf.
These saints, and many more like them, are examples for us in persisting in our Christian discipleship. Like us, they were busy. Like us, they had many cares and concerns that filled their lives, some similar to what we face and some different, but their lives were not less difficult than ours. The difference between the saints and us is the desire to be the best disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ they could be.
We too should strive with every breath to be the best Christians we can be. We might fail on occasion, but we will succeed with persistence. Our Lord asks in today’s Gospel, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on Earth?” (Lk 18:8) Our persistent answer should be “Yes, come Lord Jesus! Amen. Alleluia!”
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