No Complacency in One’s Spiritual Progress
[You must] examine your actions, and if you find them scandalous, correct yourself, and if you know them to be good, remember that… [one] who is holy must be holier, … [and one] who is just must be more ‘just’. (OOCC, X, p. 504; STA, 239)
St. Vincent Pallotti took his spiritual life and its progress seriously. He was neither complacent about nor compromised by his spiritual progress. He constantly examined his actions in the sight of God. He was very strict with himself in evaluating the progress he made in his spiritual life. He was totally transparent to his spiritual director with regard to every aspect of his spiritual life. St. Vincent took his word as God’s word, and followed it in letter and in spirit. If he found any of his actions to be scandalous he accepted his mistake without any hesitation, and was ready to correct his faults. He was never hesitant to perform the remedial methods his spiritual director suggested to make him grow in his spiritual life. He did not place an upper limit on his spiritual progress. He knew that the perfection he needed to achieve in his spiritual life was similar to the perfection of the heavenly Father. Therefore, his ideal was: ‘the one who was holy must become holier’, and ‘the one who was just must become more just’. Living this ideal was the aim of St. Vincent’s spiritual life.
Do I take my spiritual life and its progress seriously? Am I complacent about my spiritual life? Do I compromise my spiritual progress? Am I strict in evaluating the progress I make in my spiritual life? Am I open to my spiritual director in all matters of my spiritual life? Do I take his suggestions seriously? Do I place an upper limit on my spiritual progress?
No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God. (Lk. 9: 62)