Lenten Reflection for March 9th

I once had an acquaintance share some of my artwork with a renowned Canadian artist whose paintings are hung in several government buildings, museums and galleries as well as having been featured on Canada Post stamps. This acquaintance connected the artist and I and I had the opportunity to have a chat over the phone with him. 

I was open and eager to receive any advice and inspiration he could offer regarding life as an artist. One piece of advice he gave that stood out to me was this, ‘Practise every day. Whether it’s drawing or painting. Train the muscles in your hand and arm to draw and paint lines with bold confidence. Draw or paint something every day to practise, make it part of your daily routine.’ I haven’t been able to keep up the commitment of doing this every day but it is advice that I frequently recall in regard to many situations.. 

The Gift of Right Judgment is one we likely open on a daily basis, even if some of the choices each day seem smaller and more trivial, every decision is a way of practising Right Judgment. One of the ways we can see this Gift working in our life is when we are able to grow in the Fruit of Self-Control.

We may be tempted to give in to frustrations, anger, greed, fear or impatience, but when we choose to not give into ‘human nature’ we are growing in Self-Control and practicing Right Judgment. Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:25 NIV Translation) The more we practise, the better we will get at relying on the Lord’s guidance and making the wiser choice. 

You might be familiar with the phrase, ‘grace builds on nature’, this is paraphrased from a quote by Saint Thomas Aquinas, “Gratia non tollit naturam, sed perficit” which means 'Grace does not destroy [human] nature, but perfects it.' Through the grace of the Holy Spirit and the way the Gifts work together, we are given better insight and conviction in our decision making that we wouldn’t be able to achieve on our own.  (Note: the image included on this reflection is not by the artist I mentioned :) )

For our younger brothers and sisters in Christ:

Do you play any sports? Have you played in any competitions or team games? Or do you like to draw or paint? Or do you take dance or music lessons and perform at recitals? If so, I imagine it’s very likely that the very first time you tried any of these activities, you weren’t very good at them. But what I know for sure is that as time went on and you continued to practise, you got better at these skills! We also need practise when it comes to being able to make right decisions. We make decisions every day, some might seem to not matter as much but even the small right choices we make can help train us for choosing rightly in bigger, more difficult decisions. 

Saint Paul writes this in the Bible, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:25 NIV Translation). He’s teaching us that what we are ‘training’ for is not an earthly reward which will break or get lost over time. Rather it’s a heavenly reward that we attain when we follow God, praying and asking for His help to better know how to make right and wise decisions.

Let’s pray for God’s help that we can choose to show kindness, patience, love and care to those around us.

God bless you!