Day 17 – Pastoral acedia

A Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:4-7)

From Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium):

At a time when we most need a missionary dynamism which will bring salt and light to the world, many lay people fear that they may be asked to undertake some apostolic work and they seek to avoid any responsibility that may take away from their free time. For example, it has become very difficult today to find trained parish catechists willing to persevere in this work for some years. Something similar is also happening with priests who are obsessed with protecting their free time. This is frequently due to the fact that people feel an overbearing need to guard their personal freedom, as though the task of evangelization was a dangerous poison rather than a joyful response to God’s love which summons us to mission and makes us fulfilled and productive. Some resist giving themselves over completely to mission and thus end up in a state of paralysis and acedia.

The problem is not always an excess of activity, but rather activity undertaken badly, without adequate motivation, without a spirituality which would permeate it and make it pleasurable. As a result, work becomes more tiring than necessary, even leading at times to illness. Far from a content and happy tiredness, this is a tense, burdensome, dissatisfying and, in the end, unbearable fatigue. This pastoral acedia can be caused by a number of things. Some fall into it because they throw themselves into unrealistic projects and are not satisfied simply to do what they reasonably can. Others, because they lack the patience to allow processes to mature; they want everything to fall from heaven. Others, because they are attached to a few projects or vain dreams of success. Others, because they have lost real contact with people and so depersonalize their work that they are more concerned with the road map than with the journey itself. Others fall into acedia because they are unable to wait; they want to dominate the rhythm of life. Today’s obsession with immediate results makes it hard for pastoral workers to tolerate anything that smacks of disagreement, possible failure, criticism, the cross.

And so the biggest threat of all gradually takes shape: “the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church, in which all appears to proceed normally, while in reality faith is wearing down and degenerating into small-mindedness”. A tomb psychology thus develops and slowly transforms Christians into mummies in a museum. Disillusioned with reality, with the Church and with themselves, they experience a constant temptation to cling to a faint melancholy, lacking in hope, which seizes the heart like “the most precious of the devil’s potions”. Called to radiate light and communicate life, in the end they are caught up in things that generate only darkness and inner weariness, and slowly consume all zeal for the apostolate. For all this, I repeat: Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the joy of evangelization! (Evangelii Gaudium #81-83)

Reflection:

Do I fearfully guard my free time? Am I afraid of being asked to give too much? Have I lost the joy of the Gospel and the joy of sharing the Gospel? Have I become disillusioned with the Church, with my ministry, with others or with myself? If I feel that I cannot do it alone, I am exactly right. Sometimes we settle for that which we believe we can accomplish on our own. When we do that we set our sights so low that we quickly lose inspiration and motivation. Although we are very small, with Mary’s help, by the grace of God we can truly do great things. In fact, if we remain in Mary’s womb, we really let her do great things and we consent to do them with her, as Jesus did when Mary took Him to greet her cousin Elizabeth. Are we willing to accept whatever Mary wants to do with us to spread the Gospel and bring Good News to the poor?

Prayer:

Ave Maris Stella or Sub Turm Praesidium

Dominican Litany of Humility

Litany of the Holy Spirit

Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary