The Reason for Our Hope

by Fr. Vin

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone

who asks you for a reason for your hope.”

-- First Letter of St. Peter, 3:15

Spiritual Needs, Spiritual Wants

Hasn’t every parent had this experience: “But Mom/Dad, I really, really need a (fill in the blank)!”  Part of helping children to grow up involves helping them to sort out needs from wants.  And it’s a lifetime task.  Not a few adults, looking at the month’s credit card statement, ask themselves, “What was I thinking?!” about some purchase or other.  And with physical items it’s easier than with our spiritual lives; at least hunger, thirst, need for shelter, and the like remind us of what we truly need.  But to sort out what our souls are truly asking for is tougher; few of us have had good lessons.

Spiritual growth is joyful, but rarely pleasant.  Spiritual growth demands that we pray when we don’t feel like praying; that we worship when we’d rather sleep in on Sunday; that we forgive when we’d rather nourish a grudge; that we give to others when we’d prefer to indulge ourselves.  In today’s spiritual marketplace you can find preachers who will say that “God wants you to be rich” (or popular, or certain, or thin, or whatever we might like). That sort of preaching is like saying, “Have all the ice cream you want!”  when the Gospel is more often, “Eat your beans.”  But the healthy diet has results; something in us knows when we’re self-indulgent (at the table as well as in our spiritual life), and something in us also knows when we’re headed for health.

One of the key mottoes of the spiritual life is Agere contra.  That’s Latin for, “Go against”; against our so-called natural inclinations.  Our personalities need to be brought into balance, because sin makes us one-sided.  What we “like” (and often may think we need) may well be what leads us further out of balance – so to “go against” that will restore our balance (and lead us, surprisingly, to true freedom in the process).  You’ve probably experienced that at least a few times.  You can ask yourself: What has truly helped me to grow spiritually in the past?  As we learn to see patterns, we discover how God works in us, what our genuine spiritual needs (as distinct from self-gratifying “spiritual” wants) truly are.

Just as a parent has to remind a child over and over again that there’s a difference between needs and wants, and just as the needs are often less exciting than the wants but more important in the long run, as adults we have to teach ourselves what we truly need and what we only want.  I suggest that you try to make a list: What are your top spiritual needs?  Then go over it: What might you have put in that’s only a “want?”  What might you have left off because, while it’s a true need, it calls for something difficult?  We only grow when we challenge ourselves, and when we let ourselves be challenged by others in the Christian community.  Until next week, Peace.