TRANSCRIPT:
Good afternoon. I wanted to chat today about habits. Now, we focus a lot- as men and as businessmen- on forming the right habits because those then drive the outcomes. But sometimes even the outcomes themselves are not really the point. And when we’re talking about our relationship with Our Lord, sometimes habits can become mechanical; we do a certain thing at a certain time, we say certain words that a certain time. And all of that is right; we want to drive our body to conform to our spirit. But even those prayers- even those recollections, those examens- can become mechanical.
And of course, what Our Lord really wants from us is an interior conversion. So, how do we make sure that the interior conversion that Our Lord desires is really what’s happening by embracing these habits? Well, I haven’t figured out a way to do it for myself, but I have figured out that Our Lord has a built-in method in this world that we live in for helping to make sure that that happens, and that is suffering. He allows us to experience the suffering that perhaps we would never imagine for ourselves, whether it’s deprivation like a friend withdrawing their interest in us or a family member that hurts us or some humiliation that happens or a betrayal.
And it’s not the suffering and the pain that Our Lord desires from this. It’s the opportunity for us to respond to that like He did; not by a doubling down on our own strength, not by relying on friends and family and comforts, but, rather, by completely abandoning ourselves to God and trusting in Him just like Our Lord did in His human person when He was going through his passion, right? There was no reliance on His human strength, His friends were gone, there was humiliation, there was unbearable pain, but it was His complete abandonment to trusting in the Father and doing his Father’s will that really set the example for us.
So, as we think about our sufferings, our humiliations, the little inconveniences of every day or the extraordinary things like the death of a child or a suicide of a close friend or the betrayal by a family member, and we experience that pain and suffering, remember that it’s Our Lord giving us the opportunity, permitting us, not so much punishing us, but permitting us to respond to that and prove to Him that the desire in our heart is not just to avoid suffering at all times, but to be conformed to His will. I hope this is helpful for you today. God bless you.