Growing up on the farm, we were blessed to have a smokehouse. Originally, these were used to smoke meat so it could be preserved without refrigeration. By the time I came along, we already had a refrigerator, and the old smokehouse was used for burning trash. One of my favorite things to do was to take the trash from the house to the smokehouse and light it on fire. What I would find was that if things were too compacted down, they wouldn’t burn; it needed air. So I’d grab a stick to stir the fire.
A similar thing happens in our spiritual lives. In 2 Timothy, we find St. Paul writing from prison shortly before his death saying, “For this reason, I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control” (2 Tm 1: 6-7).
It’s easy to hit plateaus in the spiritual life. It could be spiritual complacency or laziness, sometimes called acedia, or it could be a trial that’s been put in front of us that seems insurmountable. We can easily get discouraged, and discouragement can lead to a lack of faith. We can become like the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, who cried out, “How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen!” (Hb 1:2).
But following Habakkuk’s cry of despair, we find God’s answer: “The vision still has time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late” (Hb 2:3).
In the spiritual life, one of the important virtues that needs to be purified in all of us is long suffering. Long suffering is cultivated and purified in us when we participate in the sufferings of Christ through our own suffering and trials. We all have our crosses to bear. Sometimes a cross can seem overwhelming. We might even cry out with Habakkuk, “Why Lord? How long?” But God’s answer to Habakkuk is true for us today. He has a reason, a vision, to bring about great things, both for us and others. And it is during these times that faith is needed.
Faith, one of the three theological virtues infused within us at Baptism, is a pure gift from God. From Baptism onward, the flame of faith dwells within us, but we must choose it and allow God to strengthen it over and over again. The crosses we’re asked to bear, the sufferings we must endure, test our faith. If we allow them to overwhelm us, the flame of faith can be diminished through our own lack of cooperation with grace, choked and stifled. But when we surrender and call out to God to increase our faith, God will stir the flame of our faith through his grace, just like the flames in the smokehouse rising into a fire from oxygen.
The Advent and Christmas seasons can be a time of watchful hope and joyous celebration. It is a time when our faith in God’s promises can be tested. But God is faithful to the end; his vision and promises will come. When it’s difficult, when it’s dark, when you don’t have the answer, when you don’t understand why, call out to the Lord and let his grace stir the flames of your faith, so you may grow in holiness and attain the potential we all have to become saints through grace and our active cooperation by embracing all that God allows for our good and the good of others.
