Many people show signs of discouragement in the spiritual life. It may come from a lingering personal problem that they cannot resolve. It could be from a particular struggle with sin that keeps bringing them to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It may be from an addiction that they just cannot shake after many years of resolving to stop.
I completely understand their struggle with discouragement because I have personal experience of this struggle too. I can be compassionate with these my struggling brothers and sisters because I too know the struggle to do good and to fall short in many ways. We are in good company because even St. Paul was not a stranger to this spiritual struggle when he wrote, “For I do not do the good I desire; rather, it is the evil that I do not desire that I end up doing” (Rom. 7:19).
There are three truths that Jesus teaches us in Luke 15:1-10 that we must keep in mind if we are going to follow Jesus without giving in to discouragement in our spiritual lives.
Firstly, It Is Only by the Grace of God That We Can Approach the God of Grace
Jesus speaks of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one lost sheep. The lost sheep cannot return to the shepherd on its own. It is the shepherd who goes in search of it, finds it, and brings it back safe and sound. When he finds it, he does not point the way for the sheep or give it directions for the way back. Rather, he carries it back home with him.
Similarly, we never approach Jesus by our own virtue, wisdom, strength, or holiness. It is God who inspires and moves us to repent of our sins and come back to Him. In the words of Jesus, “No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me” (Jn. 6:44). It is only by the grace of God that we can detest our sins, repent of them, and seek a life of greater fidelity to God. St. Paul attests to this when he wrote, “For God is the one who, for His good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work” (Phil. 2:13).
We Catholics can take for granted the immense grace that God offers us to humbly come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and surrender our sins to Jesus through the ministry of human and sinful priests. It is a great grace from God to approach this sacrament after our repeated sins and failures. It is an awesome grace of trust in God to avail ourselves of His mercy through this sacrament.
It is only the grace of Jesus Christ that moves us to receive this sacrament frequently. We will overcome discouragement when this truth sinks into our minds and hearts. We give in to discouragement because we are focused on our firm resolves and efforts at returning to God, instead of focusing on the love of Jesus that is bringing us home to Him and our unceasing response to this love.
Secondly, Jesus Will Never Stop Searching for Us
Jesus says this about the shepherd, “He will search for the lost sheep until he finds it.” Jesus is eternally persistent in searching for the lost sheep. He searched for the sheep during His earthly life because He came that the sheep “may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn. 10:10). He went to Calvary so that nothing should separate His sheep from Him. Right now He is searching for His lost sheep, and He will not stop until He brings us home to Him in heaven.
Similarly, Jesus will never stop looking for us and calling us to Him. No matter how many times we have failed Him or hardened our hearts, no matter how many times we have acted like the prodigal son and rejected His love, His love endures forever. He perseveres in searching for us because “He loved His own in the world and He loved them to the end” (Jn. 13:1).
How can we ever give in to discouragement when we know that the Good Shepherd does not give up in searching for us? No matter how many times we fail, we will say what Venerable Bruno Lanteri, the Founder of my congregation, the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, said, “If I should fall a thousand times a day, a thousand times a day I will begin again, with new awareness of my weakness, promising God, with a peaceful heart, to amend my life.” This should be our attitude in the spiritual life. We do not give up for any reason. We learn from our past failures, place trust in God who never gives up on us, and begin again. We don’t have time to wallow in regrets or self-pity—we press on with the grace of the present moment that Jesus offers to us.
Lastly, We Find Our True Joy Only by Returning to Jesus
The Shepherd rejoices twice. He rejoices when he finds the lost sheep and when he finally brings it back home, “When he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy…‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’” The joy of the shepherd in finding his lost sheep echoes in the heart of the sheep on his shoulder. The sheep can never know a greater joy because this is the joy of his Creator and Lord.
We too find true joy only when we allow the shepherd to bring us back to Him. We find our joy in true repentance and living under the direction and leadership of Jesus Christ. I once asked people on a retreat to contemplate themselves as the lost-and-found sheep being carried on the neck of Jesus. One of them responded, “Father, I don’t really want Jesus to carry me. I am way too heavy to be carried.” I replied that Jesus carried all our sins and brokenness on the cross, and He is more than able to carry us with Him all the way to Paradise. If we are reluctant to see Jesus carrying us, maybe we should examine our pride and self-reliance. These may be the sources of our discouragement.
This joy of the Lord that comes with returning to Him will dispel all the discouragement that we are experiencing. It will renew our hope and give us the strength to face our spiritual struggles. Remember, “the joy of the Lord is my strength” (Neh. 8:10).
One person who should have given in to discouragement was St. Paul. He had focused on his achievements and expertise in the law to the point of actively persecuting the Church: “In observance of the law a Pharisee, in zeal I persecuted the Church, in righteousness based on the law I was blameless.” He did not give in to discouragement because he knew the love of Jesus and what Jesus was doing in his life. His past achievements and his failures did not matter anymore because “whatever gains he had, these he had come to consider a loss because of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:3-8).
We must guard against discouragement in our spiritual lives because discouragement spreads in a very insidious way. We are discouraged because, created in the image of a holy and faithful God, we find ourselves falling short of what He expects of us. We are discouraged when we fail to embody and reflect to others the very holiness that we see in God.
Thus, when we give in to discouragement in our spiritual lives, we slowly become discouraged in our prayer life, sacramental life, relationships, vocations, and even entire lives. We give in to discouragement in politics, in society, and in the Church because we have given in to discouragement in our spiritual lives first.
The only person who enjoys and benefits from our discouragement is the devil and his demons. The main goal of their temptations, lies, and assaults on us is not just to bring us to sin, but to bring us discouragement so that we are reluctant to make any more consistent effort in our spiritual lives. The enemy of our salvation will highlight our many failures and mistakes and diminish from our minds and hearts the reality of the presence and action of Jesus in our lives. They will do anything to prevent us from making prudent choices in our lives. They will lie to us that our struggles are insurmountable and that we are defined by our failures and bad past.
The Good Shepherd continues to come to us, even in the throes of our greatest struggles. He is laboring to bring us home on His shoulders. He will never give up, no matter our sins and failures, and we will find true and lasting joy only by repenting and turning back to Him every single day of our lives.
This is the only way that we can overcome discouragement in our spiritual lives.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
Photo by Oleksii Tsaryuk on Unsplash
