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Eighteenth Sunday of the Year
31 July 2011
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
As I write this, I’m sitting in the Honda dealership waiting for my car to be serviced. I’m grateful to God for mechanics and automotive experts who know how to keep us safe on the roads. I shudder to think what would happen on the open highway if I were the only one charged with car maintenance – it wouldn’t be pretty!
This little time in the waiting room really got me thinking about how regular maintenance is important not only for our cars but also for our souls. Responsible people spend a lot of time, energy, and money maintaining their cars and other investments. But I wonder if we place the same amount of time and effort into maintaining (and improving) our spiritual lives.
This is why these past two weeks I have been speaking about the need for private prayer time in the morning. Daily prayer – both alone and within our families – is the regular spiritual maintenance that our souls need.
But we also need another kind of spiritual maintenance, and that comes from the public prayer and sacraments of the Church.
All the miles you put on your car wears and tears at your engine, which creates the need for tune-ups, oil changes, tire rotations, etc. For these necessities, we usually turn to the experts: in this case, the mechanic. But don’t you think that the challenges of daily life also take a toll on the health of your mind, heart, and soul?
Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Sometimes that rest and rejuvenation comes to us through private prayer, but sometimes we need the help of others – people who may know more about the ‘engine’ of the spirit than we do.
Just as we need to visit the mechanic for a tune-up, so we need to periodically visit the priest for confession.
Just as we change the oil and fill up the gas tank on a regular basis, we need to ensure that we’re actively participating in Sunday Mass every week. The reason weekly Mass attendance is a required precept of the Church is because the Lord doesn’t want our souls to ‘run on empty’ for a week. Life is simply too stressful and challenging to face without the spiritual strength that comes from the sacraments.
Has anyone ever tried to tell you that they are “spiritual but not religious”? What that usually means is that they have no problem with occasionally substituting Mass with a “spiritual” eighteen holes or a “soulful” nature hike.
But our souls need more than just a good golf game on Sunday. I wonder if these same people rotate their own tires and change their own brake pads. Because just like we need outside help to fix our cars, so we need outside help in tuning up our relationship with God and neighbor.
Father Cassabon