“If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke IX. 2 3). We must keep this warning before our minds in our frequent trials and sufferings. Heaven will be worth it all, and far in excess of it all, if we can only wait for it and with God’s help attain to it.
Why, then, is it so hard for most people to put these simple but eternal truths into practice? A fundamental reason, quite evidently, is a lack of proper faith. People believe these truths in the abstract, in theory, but in practice they act as if they did not believe them. And why so little, or such poor, faith? Well, faith, though a pure and priceless gift of God, is nevertheless something for which we must try to dispose ourselves by doing all that lies in our own power, assisted by God’s actual graces, such as trying to keep from deliberate sin, to observe the commandments of God, to say our daily prayers with attention and fervor, perform works of charity, attend church services, read religious books and papers, keep away from bad places and company, and the like. In short, we must do what we can ourselves to prepare the soil of our souls for the reception of the heavenly seed of faith; and when once we receive it, we must try to nourish it and increase it by performing the acts and works of faith.
Our great trouble is that we want and expect the wealth and riches of heaven without any, or much, effort on our part. And yet anyone who would so act as regards the wealth and riches of this world would rightly be considered a fool or insane. If we were only as wise and zealous in spiritual and eternal things as we are in material and temporal things, how much more certain and abundant would be our eternal salvation! And these latter goods are only passing and fast-flying, whereas the former abide forever.
Charles J. Callan, OP and John F. McConnell, MM
Spiritual Riches of the Rosary
