Stages

“There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of perfection.” (Pope Saint Gregory the Great).

Saint Gregory the Great (Carlo Saraceni)

Is it not a strange thing that everything takes time in this world?

The angels made a choice to follow God or reject Him in an instant and that choice will endure for all eternity.  And yet, we humans are afforded opportunity after opportunity to make mistakes and decisions and do things differently and all manner of things…

And then as we make choices and choose God in a moment and reject Him in another, we grow closer to Him or further away from Him.  And I have been reflecting on that.

You see, when a baby is born it is completely helpless.  It cannot feed itself, change itself or protect itself.  Without its parents (especially its mother) that baby is unable to survive and will surely die.  This is one of the reasons why Christ as God is such a wonder.  After all, God Himself came to Earth as a helpless baby so that He – who is infinite and immortal and eternal – could rely on the finite, mortal and time-constrained humans to keep Him alive.  He relied on creates who grew tired and old and weak over time and went through stages in life.

And how interesting are those stages.  All our life is a series of stages…  And our spiritual life is much the same.  Pope Saint Gregory the Great said, “There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of perfection.”

And the stages that relate to conversion also relate to the contrition of a soul when we have sinned.  I remember being a very small child and being afraid that I would go to Hell when I died, and so I tried very hard to be good so that I would not go to Hell.  As I grew older, I came to realise that the sadness of God was perhaps a far greater repercussion of sin than damnation of my soul.  After all, if I were to be damned I would suffer, but my sins would cause a blameless and perfect Being – PURE LOVE to suffer for no reason other than my own rejection of perfect Love…

“The first level of contrition is a contrition of fear. It's called, ‘imperfect contrition’ or ‘attrition’, because it's motivated by awareness of the ugliness of sin and by fear of eternal damnation. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, it begins a process of inner conversion that disposes us to grace and is completed by sacramental absolution...The second level of contrition, called ‘perfect contrition’, [is] motivated not by a self-oriented fear, but by love for God and the awareness of how good He is. This is much more personal, leading to a deeper relationship with God and a growing desire to avoid anything that might offend Him.” (Vinny Flynn, “7 Secrets of Confession” at page 118-119).

And I have been thinking about the stages today as I have been thinking about how many times God gives me another chance to try again.  And it occurs to me that I am blessed.  I am blessed beyond measure because God allows me to think about what I would like to do and to try things differently – over and over again.

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.