July 13

Fidelity To Our Duties

Preparation. - The service of God, or the obedience we owe Him, imposes duties on us, which it behooves us to fulfill. What motives have we carefully to acquit ourselves, first, of our duties of piety, and secondly, of those of our state? As fruit of our meditation, let us often recall these words of St. Paul: “Godliness is profitable to all things” (1 Tim. 4. 8); “Fulfill thy ministry” (2 Tim. 4. 5). Wherefore let us unite prayer with our daily occupations, so as to sanctify our every moment.

I. Motives For Fulfilling Our Duties Of Piety.

God justly requires our homages because of His greatness, His sovereign dominion, His essential excellence. How can we do this more satisfactorily than by performing well our pious exercises? During mental prayer we humble our mind in His divine presence, acknowledge our indigence and misery, and glorify His holiness. By means of the Sacrifice of the Mass we render Him infinite honor, boundless praise and thanksgiving; we offer Him the homage of adoration, submission and gratitude that is due His divine attributes and numberless benefits.

Is it not also a means of enriching ourselves with the goods of heaven? “He that asketh, receiveth,” says our Lord; “he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Luke 11. 10). But by means of mental prayer, Mass and holy Communion and our other pious exercises, we ask, we seek, we knock. We claim of Jesus the help needed by our soul; we seek Him as the Bread of life, the supreme and eternal Good; we knock at the door of His Heart, in order to obtain the graces of salvation. If, then, we multiply our acts of petition in our daily exercises, will not our progress become more and more apparent?

Our exercises of piety being the cement of our union with God, the more faithfully we perform them, the more will light, strength, courage and confidence increase in our heart and help us to become conformable to the divine will. Therefore, were the saints so constant in conversing with the Lord, so as to draw closer and closer the bonds uniting them to Him.

Are we, like them, punctual in making our morning meditation with sincere piety and unremitting attention, as an act of the utmost importance? Do we not neglect our particular examen, our spiritual reading, the good intentions and ejaculatory prayers?

O my God, what an account shall I have to render Thee for so many occasions to meditate, pray, hear Mass, go to confession and holy Communion, without deriving any real profit therefrom! Enable me to find out which of my spiritual exercises I perform with but little care. Increase in me fervor of my mind and will, and grant me the grace to follow punctually until death my rule of life, so that I may daily derive from it the sincere will to offer Thee my homages, to obtain Thy assistance and to unite my self intimately with Thee. “Godliness is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

II. Motives For Being Faithful To The Duties Of Our State.

When God calls us to a state of life, to a certain function, or ministry, He imposes on us duties which He requires us to fulfill punctually and faithfully. When we do so, we obey Him, glorifying thereby His divine authority. Moreover, how many acts of the different virtues do we perform whilst discharging our daily obligations? These acts contribute both to the honor of God and to our own sanctification.

Is not our punctuality in this also an edifying example to our neighbor? What is more striking than the conduct of one who is ever calm, exact, recollected, careful to lose no time in trifles and idle conversations! Such a one is never slothful, indifferent, or acting from mere feeling and caprice. Seeking to obey and please God alone, his conscience is his guide, and without failing against charity, he is never swayed by human respect. Hence his life, so well occupied, so well regulated, inspires to all the esteem and love of virtue.

How pleasing to Jesus is such a one! “You are My friends,” He said to His disciples, “if you do the things that I command you” (John 15. 14); “He that keepeth My commandments, he it is that loveth Me” (John 14. 21). Our divine Saviour wills that in our life we should harmonize the duties of our state with those of piety.

Wherefore let us examine, first, whether we are not improvident, slothful or negligent in the functions, employment or work entrusted to us, or in the obligations of our state, of our vocation; secondly, whether we act in every thing with order and care, without deferring till later what we should do at once; and thirdly, whether we always conquer our natural eagerness to get through. It is not the number, but the perfection of our actions that sanctifies us. Let us, therefore, perform them calmly, in a spirit of prayer, depending on God, with the sole intention of conforming ourselves to His holy will. “This practice,” says St. Vincent de Paul, “eminently includes mortification, unreserved submission, self-denial, the imitation of Jesus Christ and union with the supreme Good.”

O my God, through the merits of Jesus and Mary, give me the grace to unite prayer and action, the spirit of faith with the daily occupations and events, in order that I may so fulfill all my duties, as to glorify Thee, sanctify myself, edify my neighbor, and testify to Thee the most sincere love.