Persevering in the Apostolate
The cultivation of the spiritual garden of the soul is very … [difficult] … It is necessary … for you to increase … your efforts … Remember that the eternal reward is not proportioned to the size of the harvest, but to the effort expanded. (OCL, IV, 869, p. 115)
St. Vincent Pallotti compares a person’s engagement in the apostolate with a farmer working in a field or a garden. The task of the farmer becomes easy if the soil of the field is cultivatable. On the contrary, if the field is barren and the soil is hard, it is harder for the farmer to cultivate the land to bring about even a small yield. St. Vincent says that the cultivation of the spiritual garden of a person’s spiritual life is very similar. If the inner dispositions of the people we care for spiritually are not genuine, it is very difficult to form them spiritually. In such a situation, there is the need to increase the apostle’s effort to bring transformation into the lives of the persons, even though the fruit is not visible and tangible. Though the result of the apostle’s work is not apparent in the lives of the people he is serving, he must increase his efforts and continue to serve them. These are the moments in which an apostle can be disappointed and discouraged. St. Vincent reminds us that these are precisely the moments in which an apostle should doubly increase the efforts and persevere in his apostolate. He must believe that God, the Master of every spiritual field, will lovingly bless the efforts of the faithful and diligent laborers, and give a hundred-fold reward. In moments of disappointment, the apostle must remember that the eternal reward God showers on him is not based on the size of the harvest his efforts have brought in, but rather it depends on the size of the effort the apostle has put into his apostolate. This conviction helps him to persevere in his apostolate.
Which are some of the difficulties I experience in my apostolate? In difficulties, do I increase my efforts? Do I believe that God would bless my efforts? Do I realize that God rewards not depending on the size of the fruit, but based on the size of the effort?
For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (II Cor. 4: 11)