Practice Makes Perfect

By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, man has not been in harmony with God, with nature, nor even within himself. The original harmony, or “justice” as the Catechism calls it, has been disrupted by the original sin and St. Paul goes so far as to call this deprivation of harmony a “war”: the flesh is now warring against the spirit! Theologians call this lack of harmony concupiscence. In his fallen state, man’s nature, while complete and whole in itself and fundamentally good, is now left to its own devices in the effort to control the passions of his animal nature with right reason. When he sinned, Adam lost the supernatural and preternatural Gifts that God had given him which made life in the Garden so harmonious and easy. The gifts of Immortality, Impassability and Integrity were beyond man’s nature and flowed from the principle Gift of Sanctifying Grace which established his intimate friendship with the Lord – described in Genesis as “walking with God in the cool of the day”. When Adam lost these precious gifts, so too did all of us, his progeny. 

Now, with the Redemption of the Lord and our Baptism into Christ, we are restored to friendship with God by Sanctifying Grace, but the other gifts of original justice are not restored to us. The harmony of living virtuous lives comes now only with great personal effort responding to the grace of God in a generous life of asceticism. As a priest, I witness this struggle vividly in the confessional and in my own life. The practice of virtue and the avoidance of sin, aided significantly by God’s grace, is nevertheless a big struggle. Concupiscence is a strong factor in everyone’s life. It is now “by the sweat of the brow” that we produce goods from the earth. It is also only with effort that we regain control of our lower passions to be in harmony with right reason. 

You hear about athletes doing “reps” to perfect their game or get into shape. It is the very same method for the Christian to gain virtues and reduce vices. It is about building habits or “reps” of wholesome, prayerful, virtuous life while reducing the occasions of bad behavior. Gaining a virtue is like learning to type on a keyboard – at first it is hard, slow, and awkward, but with sufficient practice, typing becomes easy, enjoyable and productive. 

So don’t just stand there, run it again.