Faith and work series BE NOT AFRAID: OVERCOMING SIN AND TEMPTATION IN THE WORKPLACE Church of st. Olaf, Minneapolis Thursday, April 15, 2010 By The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt Good morning and welcome! I wish to thank the parish of St. Olaf and especially Fr. Mark Pavlik for inviting me to be here this morning, for this final lecture of this year s Faith and Work series. What an appropriate place to speak of the intersection of faith and the workplace Saint Olaf is called to be a light in this city; the real spiritual center of downtown Minneapolis. I cannot help but marvel at how many come to this church throughout the busy week on their lunch break, looking to receive comfort and consolation from their loving God in the Eucharist. In addition, how many come to this church throughout the week seeking the forgiveness of God through the reception of the Church s absolution, given in the Sacrament of Confession. Lastly, how many come to this church, throughout the week, to hear the good news proclaimed and to take courage in the mercy of God, their Father and Jesus, their Savior. Truly, it is a real grace to be here, in this place where so many lives are touched on a daily basis even in the midst of the hectic, downtown workday. G. K. Chesterton once wrote that of all the revealed doctrines of the Church, none is so naturally obvious as original sin. Besides our own particular struggles with individual, shall I say private vice, a casual perusal of the headlines makes it clear that evil and sin are very, very real. 3 are arrested for their role in a drug ring A man is sentenced to prison for online child solicitation A Minneapolis man is indicted in robbery A man is charged for downloading child pornography A married coach admits he had sex with one of the young, teenage women on his basketball team The Church, given her Divine mandate to speak authoritatively on matters of faith and morals, calls us to reject sin, to turn our back on pride, vanity and sensuality, and to fight against the weakness of fallen flesh. But corresponding to the Church s clear teaching that sin is pervasive, the life of the Christian must be one of constant struggle against the flesh, the world and the devil, and this is the clarion call by the Church to embrace the message of the Gospel, which is, in the end, a positive message of God s love. Yes, we are sinners. Yes, due to the fall, we are inclined to turn in on ourselves. But, despite that and yes because of it, God has given us His love all the same. And it is this love, freely given, that we are called to share with our neighbor. Christianity is not simply a religion of no. It is a life that is meant to be directed outward and forward by the compelling force of God s mercy. Nature abhors a vacuum. But so too does the human heart. We must either deliberately fill ourselves with goodness, truth and beauty, or we will inevitably be filled with pettiness, selfishness and pride. And so it is not enough to reject sin. We must also do good. Without this constant tension between the positive mandate of the Gospel and the prohibitions of the law, we are condemned to either a Pharisee-like legalism, or a wishy-washy notion that because God
2 loves us, nothing is prohibited. Both are errors. Rather our standard must be Do good and avoid evil. We must accomplish both to succeed in the moral life, to be formed and shaped into the men and women Christ calls us to be. Using the terms given to us by tradition, we can speak of the need to reject the seven deadly sins, but also to enkindle and to embrace a life of virtue, that way of living and being that is rooted in the truth and the goodness of God s own life. It is at this point where, as they say in Detroit, the rubber hits the road. In other words, let us make the choice to be not afraid as we move forward courageously in truth and love. I credit Fr. Robert Barron of the Archdiocese of Chicago for much of the following material presented today; his ministry of preaching is quite extraordinary, and his use of Dante in explaining the seven deadly sins fits in so well with our discussion today. Counterpointing each of the seven deadly sins, Fr. Barron gives a corresponding antidote by presenting in contrast a lively virtue. Because God is the source of all life, anything that does not bring us closer to God s life brings us closer to death. In other words, if we are not deliberately rejecting sin and deliberately filling ourselves up with the goodness of right living, we are off the mark. As many of you know, the second book of Dante s three-part Divine Comedy is the Purgatorio. Here, the author is lead by his guide upwards on a seven-tiered mountain, the summit of which is heaven itself. At each level the sojourner finds suffering souls, making reparation for their favorite deadly sin. As we all know from our Catechism courses, the greatest sin is pride, and the prideful souls in Purgatorio were at the bottom of this mountain, the farthest from the mansions of the Father. The antidote to pride is humility. From the Latin root humus, meaning earth, a humble person is, as our Lord put it, meant to be salt for the earth. The humble man knows that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. To know who you are and where you come from disarms pride. When we stand with our feet squarely set on the ground, we get a sense of who we are in relationship to our creator. Humility is not timidity; it is honesty. In her Magnificat, the Blessed Virgin refers to herself as the Lord s humble handmaid and yet proclaims, All generations will call me blessed. Mary knew who she was by God s design, and she was grateful for the role she would play in salvation history, even for the veneration that she would receive. We, too, should seek and pray for the virtue of humility, for it shows us the path to true greatness. Christ humbled himself, to the point of death, and now he sits at the right hand of the Father. Humility means dependence on God, pride, on the other hand, is independence from Him. Humility is a holy evaluation of the facts and the fact is that we receive all good things from Him who loves us as a Father. But my brothers and sisters, the harsh fact is that most of us need to be humiliated in order to learn humility. As a spiritual director once told me, Oh, Father, you can t be humble until you have been humbled. Far too many of us have an inflated sense of self-importance. A good swift kick to our ego can work wonders for humility. Let us pray for humility! But then also be ready to receive that gift! When understood in love and in terms of God s paternal care for us, such difficult situations can be powerful moments of grace. Indeed, when embraced with faith, humiliation can be thought of as a kind of painful growing spurt. Now, onward up the mountain The next deadly sin traditionally enumerated is envy. The sin of envy is sadness at another s good, or joy at another s downfall. Envy destroys the spirit of unity we should have with our neighbor. It alienates us from our brothers or sisters. Do you look with desire at your
3 neighbor s car, house, job, or spouse? Do you take delight in your neighbor s misfortune, saying, They got what they deserved.? Both are indications of envy. Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, What rust is to iron, what moths are to wool, what termites are to wood, that envy is to the soul. The antidote to envy is admiration or compassion. Instead of comparing our state of life with that of our neighbor s, we should strive to admire that life. Instead of scoffing at the demotion, car crash, or sickness that our neighbor is experiencing, we should show compassion and sorrow. When we fail to show admiration or compassion and dwell in envy, the bonds of community become eroded. Insidiously, we begin to ask ourselves if others are rejoicing in our misfortune. Sin breeds suspicion and smothers trust. This brings to mind St. Paul s first letter to the Corinthians, a group that, at the time, were arguing amongst themselves about who were the better Christians. Encouraging the fledgling Corinthian community, St. Paul tells them to stop quarrelling, for such quarrelling only serves to tear apart the Body of Christ. Instead of contrasting and comparing their gifts and talents, Paul urges them to put aside envy by focusing on the whole and not the parts. Unity, cohesion, and harmony are fostered by building up their brothers and sisters in their own gifts and talents. One way in which we can curb envy and work to build up the body of Christ, is avoiding the sin of calumny. This is all too common in our daily lives. When conversations arise that slander or badmouth a co-worker, seek to diffuse those situations by speaking positively about that person. In reminding his readers of the power of the tongue, St. James points out in his letter that the tongue cannot be used at the same time for both a blessing and a curse: The tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions [ ] Does a spring gush forth from the same opening both pure and brackish water? (James 3:5, 11) Let your conversations be an occasion to build up community in your workplace, rather than letting envy tear it down. Often times, envy can lead to anger, the next of the seven deadly sins. It is important to point out here that the kind of anger we are speaking of is not simply the emotion of anger. It is the dwelling on injuries and the brooding over the faults of others, seeking vengeance and how we can inflict it. For this reason, perhaps the better word is wrath. The antidote to wrath is forgiveness, for it engages evil itself. To forgive in the midst of experiencing the sins of others is to be truly counter-cultural. As we look at the crucifix, we see the ultimate act of forgiveness, one that completely undid evil, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34) Because our Lord and Savior shows us forgiveness, we also should be slow to anger and quick to forgive. In the teachings of Jesus, we see a powerful and clear example of what happens when one does not reciprocate forgiveness in the teaching of Jesus. In particular, the parable of the unjust steward in Matthew 18:35 manifests the sober truth of forgiveness and the demands it places upon us. The wicked servant is first forgiven by the master, but then he does not show the same mercy to his fellow servant. Here, the master swiftly doles out justice. The moral is clear: forgive, and then you will be forgiven. Like envy, wrath is a poison for the soul. Brooding over hurt and frustration will lead to anger and bitterness in every area of our life. St. Paul aptly points out, (Ephesians 4:26) Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, do not give the devil a chance to work on you. In your daily examination of conscience, reflect on the times you have shown an unreasonable anger, and resolve to show mercy the next day. Next on our mountain journey is the sin of sloth. This is sorrow or sadness that stands before the love and grace of God. It is often described as laziness. But I think it is more apt to describe this quality as avoidance of God and the grace He offers us. It is possible to do this
4 through being lazy, but one can also be slothful in avoiding God, by becoming a workaholic, claiming I am too busy to pray, too busy to get to Church or too busy to think about spiritual things. Sloth can lead even the most well intentioned Christian to procrastinate or be slow in accomplishing what is most important. The falsehood of, There is no hurry, is spread by an attitude that there is always tomorrow, that we only need to do the bare minimum today, for tomorrow I ll say my prayers, tomorrow I can embrace sanctity, tomorrow I can get to confession. The antidote to sloth, my brothers and sisters, is zeal for the mission. One of the best ways to describe this antidote, I think, is to reflect on the person of St. Paul. Here was a man who readily responded to the will of God with determination and enthusiasm. He literally took every risk in order to carry out God s mission. Likewise, God calls each one of us to a specific work, and we must be zealous in our discernment of this mission, and in our eagerness to carry it out. There must be, moreover, a certain immediacy to our actions. As St. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians (5:2), The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Despite the best of intentions, the slothful will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This lesson is very clear from the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. The foolish virgins found the door locked and said, Lord, Lord, open the door for us! But he said in reply, Amen, I say to you, I do not know you. Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour. In order to avail ourselves of slothful behavior, we must, like St. Paul, focus on the specific tasks that God has asked us to do. Here, I encourage you to review the spiritual and corporal works of mercy (which I hope you still have memorized from your confirmation classes!). These two lists constitute the works that God, through his Holy Spirit, has called us to do. In prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to see how you have been living these spiritual or corporal works of mercy. Focus on one of these each day and do it. Do not delay, do not be lukewarm in your faith; carry it out with zeal! We must be practical with ourselves. Find one concrete act of love to do and then do it, today! The next deadly sin is avarice, known also as greed. Experience tells us that greed dominates the American mindset, from culture to religion. The American dream has become a veritable pathway to grab what you can, for it is after all, all about you. Some religious beliefs espouse the erroneous theology of prosperity, which says, If I serve and love God, I will be rich! Such an attitude is troubling indeed, for it reflects a profound ignorance both of the Gospel and of knowing the person of Jesus. The antidote to avarice is generosity. Instead of constantly seeking to increase material wealth, a generous person desires to imitate God s self-giving. Out of love, God gives us all that we need. In gratitude, we offer to God our first fruits, or the very best of our love, labor, and worship. The more we give of ourselves to God and to others, the more we will find happiness and fulfillment, and thus our capacity for giving increases. This reciprocation can best be described as stewardship, which is the practice of sharing one s time, talent and treasure for the benefit of the neighbor, and for the glory of God. We hear this expression often time, talent and treasure. We hear it so often, in fact, that we can rather easily ignore it. My brothers and sisters, make a firm commitment this day of addressing each of these duties the duty we have to serve others with our time, the duty we
5 have to cultivate our talents for the common good, and the divine mandate we have to support the poor, our parish and our church. The sixth deadly sin is gluttony, whose antidote is asceticism. Gluttony, of course, is an over-emphasis on the pleasure of the body, most often corresponding to one s consumption of food. Perhaps not many of us are gluttonous per se, yet I m quite sure that all of us struggle in one way or another with simple ascetical practices. How disciplined am I with my body? Do I eat because it is convenient, or because I am genuinely hungry? Can I refuse the urge of hunger for a greater good? Do I hunger and thirst for bodily sustenance more than the spiritual fruits of God? Asceticism is the practice of disciplining the bodily senses. Thus, to combat gluttony, we must fast from food and drink. Fasting is an age-old religious practice that unfortunately has fallen out of common usage, other than during Lent. As bishop of New Ulm, I asked the diocese to refrain from meat on Fridays for the increase of vocations to the priesthood. The Lord s response to the people s offering up of this small sacrifice has been the consistent increase in the number of the diocesan seminarians. God willing, many of them will become faithful priests. Our Lord tells us in Matthew 6:25 that we should be less concerned with our body, than with our soul. Food and drink are not bad in and of themselves, but we should not place our bodily hunger and thirst over that of the spiritual. Our soul hungers and thirsts the same as our body does, and our soul can lose its appetite, if you will, for spiritual nourishment, especially when we cater exclusively to the needs of our body. Charles Darwin wrote in his autobiography that, in his love for the biological, he lost all the taste he once had for poetry and music, and he regretted the loss all the days of his life. Nothing so much dulls the capacity for the spiritual as excessive dedication to the material. (Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Victory over Vice, p.70) My brothers and sisters, we must drink of that living water (John 4:21) who is Christ, and drink of it often. The Eucharist, which is the source and summit of our faith, is our spiritual nourishment, par excellence. In John s Gospel, our Lord is crystal clear on this point, Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. (John 6:56). When we strengthen our wills against temporary physical appetites, we cultivate a spiritual hunger and thirst for everlasting goods. To strengthen the aesthetic practices in your life, I encourage you to challenge yourself the next time you are hungry. Once a week or so, use the time you would normally eat lunch or dinner to pray or perform some charitable deed. This is fasting, and it is different than dieting because your motivation is to gain a spiritual good, not a physical one. Fasting is a hard exercise indeed, and praying or doing some good work during that time will help you overcome that impulse to run away quickly to Subway or McDonald s. Furthermore, you will surprise yourself on how much a regular fast can do for self-awareness, which is a key component of the cardinal virtue of prudence. The last deadly sin is lust. This sin has permeated the modern mindset, and is ingrained in societies throughout the world. Even for us gathered here today, the damaging effects that lust causes can cloud our moral vision. The personal pleasure derived from treating another person as a sexual object emphatically rejects the truth that each and every person is made in the image and likeness of God. Now, more than ever, we need to practice chastity, which is the antidote to lust. Similar to the previous deadly sins, lust is a pointing to one s own self-satisfaction If it feels good, do it, but it is especially grievous because it misuses our God-given gift of human sexuality.
6 Chastity protects this precious gift, and reverses the perversion of lust. Chastity is the profound respect for the unique otherness of the neighbor, or in other words, acknowledging the unique gift of sexuality that God has given each of us. As a lively virtue, chastity is unique because it touches upon who we are as images of the Divine. God is the creator of life. In making us male and female, he endows each of us with this potential capability. By the gift of our sexuality, we are able to give life. There are distinct differences in how this looks from the viewpoint of a married couple as opposed to an ordained priest, but the choice to exclusivity is common to both vocations. Chastity is the intention that says, I choose you; I reject all others. I give them all up for you. In the workplace, we can take simple steps towards chastity. By maintaining appropriate boundaries in speech and action, we guard our body against sexual sin. Actions such as keeping custody of the eyes, or being sensitive to how our words can translate to others are but a couple practical ways to practice chastity. Modesty in dress is also very important. In practicing this lively virtue, one must be vigilant with what enters the mind through the bodily senses. We guard our bodies so as to preserve it as a temple of the Holy Spirit. We have ascended the mountain and thus encountered the deadly sins with their corresponding lively virtues. But to make it up that mountain requires more than human willpower. It requires a prayerful disposition. It is to this fundamental Christian action that I finally turn. A life of prayer can take many forms, yet it seems to me that an authentic Catholic prayer life must include the three R s : reflection, recollection, and reception. Personal prayer is especially fruitful when it is reflective. By this I mean, as a response to one s particular state in life, prayer becomes a reflection of who we are and what we do. By objectively reflecting on who we are as individuals and on our relationship with God our Creator, we begin to take notice of how much God loves us and desires us to be closer to him. Secondly, prayer should include recollection. Again, an examination of conscience follows along the same line here. A recollection of the day, of its joys and sorrows, of our sin and virtue, builds in us an increased capacity for prudence. This is different from reflection, since reflection involves simply an introspection into our very being. But the aim of recollection, on the other hand, is to prepare for the future, based upon previous experiences. Recollective prayer does acknowledge our weaknesses, yet it also perceives how God s providence is guiding our lives, that every success and joy as well as every failing and sorrow is marked by his mercy. Reception is the third R in authentic Catholic prayer. God is always giving his love to us, and if we but take notice of his love and mercy pouring forth, we will actually be overwhelmed. Although the sacraments are the principle ways in which the mercy and grace of God is made manifest, we also receive these same graces from God in the ordinary circumstances in life. Through our prayer, we patiently and attentively listen for the Lord to speak to us. Oftentimes, his response is a calming peace, or a quiet prompting through our conscience. In these ways, sometimes unexpected, we relate to the stories of the saints. As a farmer in New Ulm once told me, we should expect miracles every day. But this demands our learning how to be receptive to God s movement in our lives. Keeping in mind reflection, recollection, and reception in a life of prayer, I encourage you to frequent the sacraments, namely, the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance, commonly called Reconciliation. As Catholics, we have the awesome privilege of receiving the transforming grace of God in the sacraments. They are the principal instruments that allow God s grace to work in our lives. Therefore, I commend to you, dear brothers and sisters, attendance at
7 daily Mass as often as you are able, and frequent confession. What greater gifts are there to combat the daily burdens of temptation to sin? If I may offer a method of prayer I have found to be useful in incorporating the three R s into prayer, I encourage everyone here to praying the Scriptures by means of lectio divina at least once a day. This devotion which translates as a Sacred Reading is an ancient form of praying Holy Scripture that completely immerses one into the Word of God. It involves a repeated re-reading of a Scriptural text that will lead to the various levels of prayer in meditation, oration and contemplation. For those of us who are usually crunched for time, it may be challenging at first to find sufficient time for lectio divina. Do not be afraid to start out small, say, fifteen minutes at a time. This can even be done on your i-pod, on which I recently heard that you are able to receive the daily Mass readings! To be sure, my dear friends, a regular regime of praying Holy Scripture will undoubtedly transform your lives in many ways. When you commit yourself to daily prayer and daily lectio, you will find that the Holy Spirit will speak to you in powerful ways as you encounter the various obstacles in your workplace. Last, but certainly not least, my dear brothers and sisters, we must daily ask for Our Blessed Mother s intercession. The Virgin Mary is the most powerful advocate in our efforts to become virtuous men and women in the workplace. From sloth to envy, from pride to lust, she is our refuge. Let us turn to her with unfailing devotion. As the Immaculate Conception, Mary is the exemplar of human virtue. Through her fiat, she freely chose to do the will of God. She is a model of chastity, humbleness, and all the lively virtues to which we hold as our exemplar. She is mother of the Church and mother of all Christians. Mary always had as her goal, unity with God. This is our goal as well. Every virtue points to God, every sin points away from Him. Living a moral life is the specific way in which we practice our faith. Living our life of discipleship, moreover, will always be a struggle and a challenge. Our consciences may falter. Our resolve may waver. But our hearts will be restless in this world, until they rest in that eternal beatitude who is the Triune God. God bless you!