No Rest for the Weary

I wrote yesterday about the need for work, not just for the Great Fast, but for life in general and the spiritual life in particular. Today, I will double down on the idea of constant effort needed to reach our goal of salvation. While salvation is a gift from God, the gift can only be received through constant effort on our part.

Today is also the commemoration of two great saints of the Church. Alexios the Man of God, and Patrick the Enlightener of Ireland. Both these great saints lived lives of constant effort to unite them with God, and both suffered for their faith. Both committed in their lives not according to the world, but according to God’s will for them. Through their life-long effort, they were honored by God with crowns in heaven.

In today’s reading from Proverbs below, we see the promise of blessings that come when we never retreat, never give up, and never stop. When we stop, we are caught by the devil’s wiles. When we slow down, we are overtaken by temptation. When we retreat, we return to the life we have escaped by God’s grace.

None of these are options if we desire to be with God. Saint Patrick was enslaved as a little boy, and only through the guidance of God did he escape to the monastic life after years of constant prayer. He was eventually returned to Ireland where his faith and guidance brought many to Christ. Saint Alexios lived a life in secret humility, only to be revealed by God as holy after his death. Both saints are examples of faith and commitment. Both can inspire us today to not give up, never rest, and at all costs, never turn back.

But what happens when we do stop or turn back? Nothing is lost forever unless we give up. This is the joy and great gift of the Great Fast. The last year may not have been a ‘banner year’ for our spiritual journey, but we are still here to give it another go. Take the opportunity during this year’s Great Fast and start over. God doesn’t reject us because we fail. He rejects us because we stop trying.

Then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor’s power: go, hasten, and importune your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber; save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer or ruler, she prepares her food in summer, and gathers her sustenance in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond, and want like an armed man. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. There are six things which the LORD hates, seven which are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers. My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. – Proverbs 6.3-20