Good habits - Rector's Rambling for January 19, 2020

We are now about three weeks into the new calendar year.  How are your New Year Resolutions holding up?  I recently read reported that people admit that most resolutions are a foregone memory by the end of January, many of them much sooner.  Lose weight, take up a hobby, give up a bad habit: So many of these things are good ideas at any time, but the start of a new year seems like a good time to take on these tasks.

The reality is that human beings are creatures of habit.  Some of our habits are positive and helpful – like brushing our teeth every morning.  To not do it makes one feel (and perhaps smell) out of sorts.  This kind of habit is something to be encouraged!

But the bad habits are the ones that we most often want to attack with our resolutions, and then realize just how hard they may be to break.  Perhaps it is a little thing like cutting back on sweets, or a harder thing like giving up starches.

We know that changes need to be made and then find ourselves, despite the best of thoughts and intentions, falling back into them.  After a few frustrating fits and starts we give up and resume the old habits.

Sin.  Yes, Fr. Kelly always brings it back to sin.  It is a condition of our fallen nature that we find ourselves drawn again to that which is comfortable and self-satisfying, rather than the hard work of personal change.  St. Paul said, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans 7:19)  If even a saint like Paul struggled, then of course you will too!

But Paul knew that the solution was to put it into God’s hands and ask him to help – replacing the bad with the good and holy.  “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24–25a)  We must continue to “turn it over” to God and ask him to help us to become the people he desires us to be.

Not all bad habits are sinful, but our inability to shake them easily is an effect of our original sin.  We are not saved by “works”, but the good habits of prayer, sacrificial giving and serving, fasting, and regular attendance at Mass to receive the Sacrament (an assurance of Grace) is a sure way to aid in the battle against “the world, the flesh and the devil” – those things that would seek to draw us away from the love of God in Jesus Christ!