“Sanctity is made up of heroic acts.” (Saint Josemaria, “Furrow” at page 529).
My husband and I – like most married couples – are quite different in how we approach certain things. While we both tend to be fast workers, we each have a different sort of level of patience when it comes to applying ourselves to completing a certain task.
My husband for example, tends to work with the minimum required for the job. He will buy just a little too little paint. Then, when he is halfway or three-quarters way through the project he will leave his work and take a break going to purchase more paint (and any other supplies that he has realised that he may need for that particular job). For me this is crazy. I tend to buy way more than I actually need. The worst possible scenario for me is to get half or three-quarters of the way through a job and realise that I have not got everything that I need for the final slog. T have to stop my work and take a break to go and pick things up is so annoying for me that I would rather do almost anything else than that…
And when we come to the end of the job – probably because my husband has taken a rest to retrieve further supplies during the course of the project – my husband has a lot of patience to get the last part of the job finished properly and to his satisfaction. I – on the other hand – tend to rush the last part of the job and leave the project in a less than perfect state. It is not that I do not do it well enough, it is simply that the ending part of my work is of a slightly inferior standard compared with the beginning part of my work…
And I have been thinking about those differences today. You see, when God assigns a project to me, it is not like deciding to paint a house. I will very often not have enough tools and supplies available to me at the beginning of the project to get the work done completely. You see, my Beloved understands that I will need rests along the way. He also knows that I am unlikely to take such rests without His deliberate intervention. And this means that He sets obstacles in my path so that I can stop and collect what I need. He does this also so that I am not exhausted at the end with no idea at all how to proceed
In “Furrow” at page 529, Saint Josemaria said, “Sanctity is made up of heroic acts. Therefore, in our work we are asked for the heroism of finishing properly the tasks committed to us, day after day, even though they are the same tasks. If we don't, then we do not want to be saints.”
And today, I pray for the Grace of heroism, for when I need to apply myself – even at the end of things – and finish the job properly…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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