Leo J. Trese - Seventeen Steps to Heaven: A Catholic Guide to Salvation

A Catholic Guide to Salvation

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS'

Manchester, New Hampshire

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Biographical Note

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Editor's note: The biblical quotations in the following pages are taken from the Confraternity Version of the Old and New Testaments. Where applicable, biblical quotations have been cross-referenced with the differing names and enumeration in the Revised Standard Version, using the following symbol: (RSV =).

or passed a church, perhaps your thoughts turned to God once or twice more. But is that often enough?

Those whom we love are never far beneath the surface of our thoughts. Their images keep constantly breaking through to the surface. If you are married, for example, how often have you thought of your husband or wife today? If you are a parent, how often have you thought of your children? The chances are that you cannot even count the number of times. If you are a young man or woman in love, the thought of your beloved is probably so dominant as to interfere at times with the ordinary business of living.

It seems strange, then, that God does not come in for a greater share of our thoughts. He is infinitely lovable, the only Being who can completely exhaust the human heart's capacity for love. We accept this truth with our minds. We accept also the fact that we ought to love God with our whole mind, heart, soul, and strength, above all other beings. Time and again we tell God that we do so love Him. Yet hours can pass, a whole day can pass, without our mind once turning to God. There is a wide gap here between theory and practice.

This divergence between theory and practice becomes even more puzzling when we consider that loving God is the most important business of our lives. God is the whole reason for my existence. He created me because He wants to have me with Him for all eternity, in a union with Him that will spell an utter ecstasy of happiness for me. A few years of so-called life flash by in this world, then I begin my real life with God - provided that I have prepared myself for it. And the only preparation required of me is that, here and now, I begin and grow in love for God. This is the real business, the sole business of human existence. Yet if a merchant gave as little thought to his business as most of us give to loving God, he soon would be bankrupt.

However, we must not exaggerate this point. We know that our love for God is measured by how hard we try to keep His commandments and do His will, not merely by how often we think of Him. We also know that our love for God differs from love for humans, in that love for God does not, usually, affect our emotions the way human love does. It is probably to be expected that an emotional love will push itself into consciousness more often than a love, however strong, that is seated in the mind and will alone. Yet, conceding all this, it does seem that God gets a rather meager share of our attention.

Daily pressures can distract you from God

One reason for this is that God tends to get crowded out of our minds by the thousand and one distractions of everyday living. There are so many things we have to do and so many things we want to do. There are so many plans to be made, so many details to be attended to. We get up in the morning, and, even as we say our morning prayers, half of our mind is on something else. "I must remember to have the washer fixed." "I must get the oil changed in the car today." "I wonder whether the boss will still be sore at me this morning." God gets His short and divided minute, then we rush through our day with no further thought for Him until, with a series of yawns, we give Him another divided minute at our bedside that night. It isn't always this way, of course, and it isn't this way with everybody. But it is this way too often with too many of us.

Fortunately, God is patient. If He sees us making a reasonable effort to live our lives in union with Him, He is willing to wait for eternity to get - as He then will - our full attention. Still, we dare not presume upon God's patience. There is always the grave danger that inattention to God may lead to forgetfulness of His rights. There is danger that the world may engulf us so completely that God will become unimportant and His will irrelevant to our conduct. There is danger, in other words, that what began as inadvertence to God may end in disobedience to God - may end in sin.

Even if our laxity does not reach the unhappy climax of sin, there still is the tragedy of wasted hours and days that have not been lived for God. Our lives should be lived on a supernatural level. This means that, in addition to being in the state of grace, we have the habitual intention (frequently renewed) of performing all our actions for God and in accordance with His will. If our life has this supernatural orientation, everything we do - whether it is changing the diaper on the baby or changing the tire on the car - has value in God's eyes and gains merit for us in Heaven. Lived in union with God, our whole life becomes a continual prayer. The demands of duty may keep God from our conscious mind a great part of the time, but He remains the focus of all our activity. Every thought, word, and action has been predirected to Him.

To one who loves God, there is a sadness in the sight of so many people - good people, too - who habitually live their lives on a purely natural level. These are people who seem to have a natural sense of decency and rightness. They have an inborn kindness and spirit of helpfulness. They are truthful, honest in their business dealings, and faithful to their family duties. Yet there is no thought of God in what they do. They live uprightly because this is the only kind of life that gives them satisfaction. If you asked them the reason for their virtue, they might answer, "I owe it to myself to he a decent, law-abiding person."