I played baseball for twelve years growing up – from seven year old coach pitch to senior year of high school. One thing that I learned through many baseball practices was that repetition was key. The more I did something over and over again, the more natural it became. The more I hit off the tee, my swing became smoother and faster. The more I hit in the cage, my timing and pitch adjustment elevated in quality. The more that I took fielding practice, my reaction and range increased to a competitive level. The more I practiced, the better I got at baseball.
But just repetition was not the key. It was the quality in the repetition. I had to swing right to hit line drives off the tee. I had to adjust correctly to pitches in the cage to control where I wanted to hit the ball. I had to have the precise footwork and throwing motion to be a quality defender. If I did not do these things correctly, little was gained from the practice. In fact, I would have been teaching myself to repeat bad habits rather than improve. To avoid this, I relied on coaches and other baseball players around me who were also working to get better, to make sure that the quality of my practice was satisfactory.
What I have described, many of us have experienced in one way or another. Any hobby or activity that requires repetition to be better at the activity will drive us to practice. We practice chords on the piano or our lines for a play. We experiment with different artistic techniques or explore the coding world. The only way we get better at these skills is if we do them often, and do them well.
The spiritual life is also a place where we can apply the ‘practice makes perfect’ attitude. The more we go to prayer, the more natural it can become to embrace silence. The more we practice good works, the easier it is to give of ourselves. And the more that we learn about God in the scriptures and His Church, the closer we can be guided by Him. This constant honing of spiritual skills can help a soul avoid sin and do great things for God. And the Church in this modern culture would greatly benefit from more of its members dedicating themselves to more frequent fundamental Christian activities.
Yet, the practice of the externals of Christianity will only bring the soul so far. A deeper level of commitment is needed if we would like to become Saints. Sainthood is not just about doing or saying the right things, it’s about being in a relationship with God. And it is that loving relationship that should spill over into our every thought, word, and deed. In this way, the Saint moves away from having mastery to being mastered.
Practicing the externals of a hobby like baseball comes from a mastery mindset. If I hit off the tee correctly enough times, I can gain mastery over my swing so that I can perform well in games. From this mindset, we become the ones in control of our success which is appropriate in an external context. But a relationship with God is not primarily external. It is primarily internal (spiritual) which flows into the external (physical) world (God is also present in the external which can inform the internal). We cannot say I will do twenty hours of service before my Confirmation so that I will be holier. This is because we cannot master God. In fact, it is quite the opposite. We have to surrender the internal so that God can gain mastery over our souls. He does this through the loving gift of Himself after we allow him to do so. There is nothing we can practice that will help us gain this gift. The only thing that we can do, is put ourselves in the disposition of humility to receive it.
This concept can be foreign to us. Allowing something to change us can be difficult, especially in a world that encourages us to take control of or even create our own reality. We are used to controlling the material world, and we trick ourselves into believing that we have control over our life. But the depth of sainthood is in giving up control. A soul will never go beyond a certain point (St. Theresa of Avila will say the third mansions of seven) until it gives up mastery of the interior and allows itself to be formed into something greater. This is scary because we will have to surrender. But if we trust that God loves us and will give us what we truly need (which we cannot achieve ourselves), then we will need to forget ourselves, surrender to His will, and allow ourselves to be mastered. It is only in this way that we truly become masters of the spiritual life.
