Doing the Work No One Sees

I spent the weekend helping paint our living room.  As we worked on this project, I was thinking about how much work and preparation there was before we could start painting.  We moved all the furniture to the middle of the room, took picture frames and all decorations off the walls, washed the walls, taped the trim and taped around the window/doors,and covered the furniture with sheets.  Anyone who comes into the house will only see the freshly painted walls.  They will not see all of the extra work, preparation, and effort that went into the project.  But all of these things were necessary for a good end result..  It is like this in our spiritual lives.  There is a lot of work we must do in order to grow in our relationship with Jesus and to deepen our faith.  We must put in the effort on a daily basis.  And most of the time, no one will see what we are doing.  But we must do it anyway.

What are we doing to develop a deeper prayer life, cultivate the fruits of the Holy Spirit, strengthen our relationship with Jesus, and learn more about our faith?  It’s easy to show up to volunteer at some parish event where others see how generous we can be with our time.  It’s easy to drop kids off at faith formation every Wednesday night so they can learn about their faith once a week.  It’s easy to show up to mass each week and check it off the to-do list until the following weekend.  If people see you at mass, they see that you’re a “good” Catholic, right?  But we can’t do the bare minimum and expect to become holy.  We need to put in the behind-the-scenes work and continually nourish our spiritual lives.  If we don’t, the end result will not be good. 

How committed are we to knowing and loving God and to becoming who He created us to be (saints!!!)?  God has given us everything we need to become the best versions of ourselves.  But we need to put in the work- even the work that no one else sees.

There is so much we can do to grow in our relationship with Christ and to strengthen our faith.  Try a new way to pray or add in extra prayer time.  Spend time reading spiritual books about the saints and other topics.  Open up your Bible. Reflect on the daily Mass readings.  Crack open the Catechism and learn what the Church teaches on certain topics.  Listen to a Catholic podcast.  Go to Eucharistic adoration.  The options are endless.
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As with the painted living room, even though people did not see the preparation and work that was done beforehand, they will be able to look at the walls and know that extra effort was put in to get the end product.  Similarly, when people see us, our goal should be for them to see Christ in us- and to see individuals with a strong faith and deep love for Him.  While they will not see the extra work we are doing in our personal lives, they will hopefully know, just by the way we live, that we are, in fact, putting in the effort.