Spirituality of Struggle
Feast of St. Francis XavierSaturday, 3 December 2005
Is there a better day to contemplate on the truth of Christian spirituality regarding “struggle”? By this word I mean how we are confronted by the realisation of our own inadequacy in dealing with all sorts of problems, challenges, trials, misfortunes, difficulties and all their synonyms that might beset us in daily life. The story of St. Francis, the missionary to the Far East, who did not succeed conventionally in his lifetime, is one of a struggle to persevere. The Far East is not to be won over without great struggle, as ancient roots lie deep.
It is an old problem, but each day, and each moment as we experience it, all the wisdom of the sages and collective human knowledge seems forgotten as we are plighted by this great wall that blocks all our senses.
To the secular minded, it is a war of the senses, where faculties of intellect and genius is summoned to besiege the problem and over come it.
It was St. Francis de Sales of Annecy, confronted by the storm of the Reformation around the Swiss, French and Italian border that taught: nothing is more potent than gentleness. (“Above all, you must perform this angelic office gently and sweetly, not as though to correct others, but by way of suggestion; for it is wonderful how powerfully sweet and amicable setting forth of some good thing is able to influence hearts.” – The Devout Life, 1608, chapter 26.)
That is the sublime basis for the Christian spirituality of struggle. The other monotheistic traditions differ significantly, and I must forewarn, that this view is unique to Christian faith. The Jews read the Law (Torah) and the Prophets, saw their struggle as obedience to the Mosiac laws, and faithfulness to the kingship of Yahweh, which they translated as the undeniable sovereignty of God. Jewish thought today is more diverse in its understanding of what constitutes struggle, but the fundamental idea is the same: ie. faithfulness of the Law of Yahweh.
In Islam, we are already familiar with “jihad”, in both forms, where it is a spiritual surrender to the Will of Allah, and on the other hand, to be the smite of Allah to the infidels. The latter is a mandate from the Q’uran where it is taught that those who deny the Islamic truths earn themselves the warrant of eternal death (Surah 47:1-4).
From the spring of Judaism, Jesus preached struggle in several ways, and the Gospels relate it thus:
“Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” (Matthew 5:11)
The whole beatitudes reflect the spirit of struggle: we are blessed – made happy, made gracious, given God’s favour – through our plights and suffering. Within this idea, is the kernel of Christian spirituality on struggle.
“If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16: 24b) and “Instead, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend without any hope of return.” (Luke 6:35)
It is the Apostle Paul who describes this spirituality, which we translate it into living action, when he spoke of it as a race, towards which the athlete competes for the prize to win.
“Every athlete concentrates completely on training, and this to win a wreath that will wither, whereas ours will never wither. So that is how I run, not without a clear goal; and how I box, not wasting blows in the air. I punish my body and bring it under control, to avoid any risk that, having acted as herald for others, I myself may be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27)
Our Christian life invites us to discipline ourselves. That is the struggle to speak of.
Central to the Pauline Epistles are admonitions towards this continual struggle. “Your mind was to be renewed in spirit so that you could put on the New Man that has been created on God’s principles, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:23) and therefore, he calls on Christians in this spiritual struggle to “put on the full armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics” (Ephesians 6:11).How are we to do this – struggle, and succeed?
Again, the Apostle provides the clue: “And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the Spirit looks forward to life and peace, because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God’s Law, and indeed it cannot, and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God. You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you.” (Romans 8:6-9a)
He teaches us that we cannot struggle by our own effort, and that God’s generosity has provided us with many spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4): “There are many different gifts… Set your mind on the higher gifts. And now I am going to put before you the best way of all (v31)… Though I command languages both human and angelic – if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming… if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever… As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them, and the greatest of them is love.” (1 Corinthians 13)
The kernel of Christian spirituality is the same: it is a message founded on the universal good of love.
Therefore, our best tool in all our hardships is one which at first looks implausible.
How is “love” to help when one is already disabled, challenged, marginalised, bankrupted, poor and broken, depressed, fallen, ill, disparaged, weak, overcome, terrified? You see, what the Gospel and the Apostle is teaching harks back to the root of our person: if we are grounded in love, truly rooted in the belief about compassion and self-surrendering love, then even when all the odds and powers seem to overwhelm us, we are to realise our deepest call to not cease to heed towards the giving ourselves until we are emptied out. And in it is in this emptying out, (kenosis, in Greek) when we utterly feel there is nothing more to give, that we come to fully experience the infinite nature of love.“If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow completely into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). To many of us who have not lived life to the fullness of this teaching, we know that it is the fear of “losing everything”. The Gospel makes it clear: we must lose “everything” in order to gain the Kingdom of God, which is the Life of Christ in us. That Life cannot take root without the fertile ground of our deepest and whole hearts being ploughed out and the Word seeded on to it, and nourished by every grace and sacrament given to us through Christ.
Love, as the Apostle John describes it, has “no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.” (1 John 4:18)
Christ teaching on the strategy for Christian spiritual struggle is not a complex web of bible study, hermeneutics, or proselytising, but in fact, a call to action and a life of good works. Protest all you like, but let the Apostle Paul paraphrase that familiar teaching: “After all, brother, you were called to be free; do not use your freedom as an opening for self-indulgence, but be servants to one another in love, since the whole of the Law is summarised in the one commandment: You must love your neighbour as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13) and “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:10)
The key through hardship is to endure with every act of love, like you cannot live without it. Unbelievable, but true. I mean, for example: when the World Trade Centre was attacked, and the other planes were hijacked by Islamic terrorists in the name of their jihad, what did we hear? We heard people telephoning their loved ones with messages of love, even in the face of terror, death, and unspeakable destruction.
Part of the struggle therefore is for Christians regain an understanding of the truth and the meaning of love, as Christ taught it, and bore it to the end, and to fulfilment. (Hebrews 4:14, and 5-9)
We too must not weary and be prepared to struggle all life-long. The Apostle does remind us: “Perseverance is part of your training” (Hebrews 12:7), and offers this final advice to Titus: “I want you to be uncompromising in teaching all this, so that those who now believe in God may keep their minds constantly occupied in doing good works.” (Titus 3:8b)
Because the message of the Gospel is centred on love, which comes from God, our whole experience therefore is a struggle to love, perfectly as Christ has, and God our Father in heaven loves all with the same favour and grace (Matthew 5:44-48). Indeed, the Christian spirituality of struggle finds expression in all good works.
