When you are in love with God, it is impossible to be bored!
A member of MH once said, jokingly, in front of Catherine: “Ho hum. Another dull day in salvation history. “Shocked, she turned to him and said forcefully: “There are no dull days in salvation history. There’s never a dull day! It’s an impossibility.” On February 24, 1964, she wrote a letter to explain the matter further.
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There are some among us who—occasionally, or for long periods—feel a sense of boredom.
Do you know what boredom is? It is a kind of death in a human being.
It means that people have let their interior resources dry up and have reached a sort of coma that is akin to death. It means their motivation is at an absolutely low ebb.
Boredom is a forerunner of many emotional problems, even mental breakdowns. It may lead to alcoholism, or to drug addiction, in a desperate effort to escape that sense of uselessness and failure.
In his youth, a man dreams that he will achieve great things. Then he gets a job on a production line where, for eight hours a day, he keeps putting a bolt into a hole. He never sees the completion of his work. He begins to get bored. He feels he isn’t contributing anything to anybody. He is just a cog in a machine.
It will become worse in our computerized society. A person will just sit before a panel and push buttons. Our industrialized, highly technological society creates this monotony. It is understandable that anybody would be bored under such conditions.
But when nurses become bored with their job, when teachers become bored with their work, when priests get bored with being a priest—or when a member of Madonna House is bored with being a lay apostle!—then the breath of Satan is upon that person. His or her motivation has “fallen asleep,” has gone comatose.
And what is (or should be) the chief motivation of nurses and teachers and priests and lay apostles? Love … love of humanity, at least. Love for a cause, and dedication to it! For Christians, the love of God as well. For us, then, boredom spells danger. Grave danger.
I ask you, how can I be bored with writing personal letters to each of you, day in and day out, when I love you? How can I be bored teaching the shining truths of God, even to the half-listening ears of youth? It just isn’t possible.
When you are in love with God, it is impossible to be bored! Those of us who have become bored have either ceased to love or are in danger of ceasing to be in love. This would be a first step to a breakup of the family.
Granted, we do live in routine. We get up at a certain time, eat at a certain time, pray at a certain time; and when we work, we work in a sort of routine. There are always the same things to do, whether in Combermere or Timbuktu, and that becomes monotonous.
Being human, we try to escape this monotony of things through withdrawal into our private selves. We desire some kind of change from dealing constantly with other people—whether the public at large, or our own family members. These breaks are provided by retreats, days of recollection, holidays, and by other means.
But that boredom should enter the mind, heart, and soul of an MH member? That is hard for me to imagine unless he or she is beset with temptations, unless Satan is present and whispering his weird half-truths.
How is it possible to be bored when we believe the marvelous words of St. Paul that we can make up what is wanting in the sufferings of Christ? In his infinite mercy, God has called us through grace to become co-redeemers of the world with him!
Do you realize this, dearly beloved—that you are co-redeemers with Christ? He has given you this immense power. So this seemingly grayish routine of ours isn’t gray at all, but resplendent with light. At least it is in our power to make it so.
How does this work in our daily lives? If my secretary—sitting here typing letters— “offers up” the tiring task of hitting those keys hour after hour under my dictation, then she is co-redeeming the world with Christ. The cooks in our missions —working with scraps and donations each day to make the eternal stew—can bring joy and hope to others throughout the world, if they have a mind to.
The men—getting up for early morning chores, performing ordinary routine jobs, driving cars and trucks, cleaning light fixtures, repairing and maintaining our buildings—can save souls from the jaws of hell!
How in the name of the All-Holy can one become bored with this typing, this meat-cutting, this potato peeling, this repairing and cleaning, with all the other routine jobs, if one knows in faith that everything helps to redeem the world and to render glory to God!
Stop for a moment and think of a member of MH being bored! Isn’t it incomprehensible? In the light of what I have just written, the answer should stare you in the face. This person has allowed his or her love of God and of others to sink into a coma.
The remedy for this affliction is prayer, fasting, spiritual reading, retreats, days of recollection, and the examination of our consciences. For boredom spells danger to the soul. Satan is there!
[“Welcome Father” painting by ©Patrick Stewart]
