“Be vigilant at all times.” (Luke 12:35-38) When I’m feeling pretty good, I find this admonition inspiring; it gives me energy to go the extra mile in serving the Lord. Yet when I’m not feeling great, this passage can fly right over my head. 

Recently I’ve been under the weather, nothing serious, but enough to cause me to feel lousy, with cough and congestion and just feeling crummy. When I feel like this , it’s hard for me to pray. 

I have my daily routine of prayer, and if I don’t complete it, I don’t feel that I’ve gotten adequate prayer. So while I’ve been battling this sickness, my prayer has been more “skimpy”. And when my prayer is “skimpy”, I can feel that I’m letting the Lord down. I think this shows signs of my old “heretical attitude” of “earning my way to heaven… oh Dave, what have you done for me lately….”. I sure don’t want to die on a day that I missed having a good prayer time. I can envision St. Peter having two lines at the gates of heaven…. one for those who had a good prayer time and the other for those lazy bums who didn’t have their prayer time. I think this attitude can be more prevalent than we might think. The following is a much better summary of the balance between “faith and works”.

“While we are not saved by the works, they are a sign that true faith is active in us. St. Paul writes: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them” (Eph 2:8-10). Thus, while we are saved by grace through faith, works necessarily follow if it is true faith. Further, our good works are not our gift to God, but his gift to us. St. James says, “faith without works is dead” (Jas 2:26). In other words, it isn’t true or living faith at all. Jesus says, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?” (Lk 6:46). So obedience to the commandments is tied to faith, hence faith is never alone; it is inseparable from obedience to works and behaviors God has tied to it. While we are not saved by the works themselves, the works manifest a true and saving faith.” (Our Sunday Visitor, Jan. 19, 2021, Msgr. Charles Pope)

The truth is that Christ is our savior; we need Christ to go to heaven. It’s by his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection that we are saved. We can’t earn our way to heaven. No matter how well we are doing, we need Jesus; no matter how poorly we are doing, we need Jesus. Our surrender to the Lord should manifest itself in lives that are more and more conformed to his will…. we should become more like him. His grace should empower us to live lives of holiness.

But what about those times we are weak and unable to live fully for the Lord? Well those are the times we need to rely fully on Jesus and on his great love and mercy and provision for us. He will not leave us in our weakness. He will be there for us. His love is so great. May this love empower us to serve him even more.

“May we be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.”(Luke 12:36-37)