Reflections - Creatures of Habit

Creatures of habit

How to get out of the rut

The standard railway track gauge – the distance between the two tracks – is 1435 mm (4 ft 8 1/2 inches). It is a 2000-year-old story going back to the Roman Empire (27 BC to 1453 CE) and Roman War Chariots. As the empire expanded across Europe and Middle East including Egypt and Judea in Israel the chariots left ruts on the road they had traveled.

To avoid damage and shattering of their wheels on the rut-impaired roads, the horse carts that followed had to have the same wheelbase, and so did the trams that followed later with the expansion of the British Empire, and the trains that followed, including the railways tracks in America that was built by British engineers. Unable to get out of the ‘rut’ most railway networks run on the standard gauge.   

Slipping into a rut can happen to the best of us, including St Paul, who was a one-man army in the spread of Christianity among the gentiles.

In Romans 7:15-19, St Paul says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.”

Why do we fall into a rut in the first place? The short answer, “Bad Habits”. The acquired disposition to fall easily into those sins to which we have become accustomed.  

So, let us examine why we fall into a rut a little more deeply.

1.   Doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result. This statement is often quoted as the definition of a fool. Imagine you are playing the piano and you play the same tune over and over again. Any chance you will become a Beethoven? If anything, it makes for great Chinese torture akin to droplets of water falling on your forehead every few seconds for hours together. Imagine again what it is doing to your life when you are unwilling to recognize the boring repetitiveness of some of your actions which is not taking you anywhere. It is easy to mistake activity for progress.

2.   Doing different things, but no one thing well enough, to make an impact and a difference to your life. We get bored easily with whatever we are doing and so we seek variety. We start on a book and leave it halfway. We start on a project and leave it half way. We start on a relationship and leave it halfway. We take fancy for gardening and leave it halfway. Now imagine you are cooking and you leave it halfway. Many things that we leave halfway we do not feel its impact immediately because no one else knows about it (except in the case of the relationship and gardening – in both cases instead of fruits and flowers you get weeds and unforgiveness and resentment, the remnants of your half-effort). But, when you leave the cooking halfway, you will have to make do with something less palatable.

3.   Not doing anything significant and hoping to be significant. We all want to be someone in life. To be significant, you need to be different. But that is not enough. You need also to be relevant. You can be different with an afro hairstyle, rings on every part of your body, tattoos that make you a modern art billboard. You are different, but not significant. You become significant if with the same get-up you are also a rapper bringing joy to many with your talent. Significance comes from individuality, achieving something unique, that is, differentiated, but also relevant, to a few or large masses of people.

4.   Going down the beaten path and hoping to find something of value. What is the beaten path? It is an opening created in an untended ground on which others have walked to get where they wanted to go to find what they wanted to find. When you take the beaten path, you will end up where others have. There is safety and strength in numbers. But the value that the pioneers (identified by arrows on their back) derived from their discovery of the path will be available to you at a price – the price of conformity. Generally, when people go off-road, they prize what they discovered when they are the first to do so. The beaten path is safe but rarely produces value.

5.   Doing what is wrong and hoping all will be right. We know of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy and pride. You can add your own that went under the radar of the writers of the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Smoking, drinking, gambling, vile and loose living. 

“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Then there is the sin against the Holy Spirit, “Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them.  But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” Mark 3:28-29

Pope Saint Pius X taught in his Catechism that there are six elements of this sin against the Holy Spirit:

1.   Despairing of salvation. This is when a person loses hope of salvation, judging that his eternal life is already lost and that he is condemned, even before Judgment. It means judging divine mercy as being small. It means not believing in God’s justice and power. Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus is an exemplar of this sin.

2.   Presumption of salvation is when a person cultivates in his soul an idea of his own perfection, which implies a feeling of pride. He believes his salvation has been guaranteed by what he has done. The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector praying in the temple. (Luke 18:9-14)

3.   Denying a truth recognized as such by the Magisterium of the Church. When a person doesn’t accept the truths (dogmas) of the faith, even after an exhaustive doctrinal explanation, it is the sin of heresy. He considers his personal understanding to be greater than that of the Church and the teaching of the Holy Spirit that assists the holy Magisterium.

4.   Envying the grace that God gives to other people. Envy is a sentiment of discontent because someone else obtained something good, even if you yourself already possess it or could obtain it someday. It’s the act of not wanting what is good for your neighbor. With this sin, I make myself the judge of the world. I’m revolting against the Divine Will. I’m rebelling against the law of love for one’s neighbor.

5.   Obstinacy in sin is the firm will to continue in error even after receiving the light and help of the Holy Spirit. This is when a person creates his own criteria for ethical judgment, or simply doesn’t adopt any ethics at all, and in this way separates himself from God’s will and rejects salvation.

6.   Final impenitence is the result of an entire life of rejecting God. This is when a person persists in error until the very end. It’s the equivalent of consecrating oneself to Christ’s adversary. Even at the hour of death, such a person refuses to approach the Father with humility. He doesn’t open himself to the Holy Spirit’s invitation.

If only we can utter the last few words from the Anima Christi when we are breathing our last,

“Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within your wounds hide me.
Permit me not to be separated from thee.
From the malignant enemy, defend me.
At the hour of my death, call me
and bid me come to thee
That with your saints I may praise thee
For ever and ever. Amen.”

Reflect on your thoughts and actions that are in conflict with God’s will in our life. Check the five “doing” boxes and examine your life in that context. Then check the next six “sin against the Holy Spirit” boxes and examine yourself again.

Make reparation and a good confession. You will emerge from the rut and be a new creation.

Friday, April 24, 2020