Fr. Jim Shea, SJ, considers falling forward to be a reminder of our reliance on God
By Jay Sorgi | For On Mission
OSHKOSH, WI — Some Catholics in the final stretches of Lent have been successful in keeping their Lenten promises. Many have slipped up at least once or twice.
Fr. Jim Shea, SJ, a spiritual director at the Jesuit Retreat House on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, says that those who falter in being perfect about Lenten sacrifices should not dwell in their own imperfections, but reside their spirit in the grace of a loving, forgiving God who will accompany them in getting back up and moving forward, even changing or adding a different mid-Lenten practice to grow their relationship with the Lord.
“It isn’t so much the success or failure of the thing itself. But your attitude or your response to what happened. If you lift yourself up to the Lord, if you turn to the Lord after you failed to do what you wanted to do, that’s grace,” Fr. Shea said.
“If you fail, that’s a win if it teaches you that you must rely on God.”
Fr. Shea cites Blessed John Sullivan, SJ, an Irish priest whose ministry around the turn of the 20th century included retreats where he clearly encouraged the path of falling and rising in Christ, a symbolic reflection of his resurrection.
“I hope every single one of you will have broken every resolution you made in the retreat before the end of the week, and if not, then at least in a fortnight,” Blessed John Sullivan, SJ, said. “It will do you good and humble you, provided you get up and begin again and do not flop down and lie there on the broad of your back, saying ‘It’s no use, it’s all over.’ Not a bit of it, it’s not all over, it’s only beginning. So up with you, and start again. Remember, each time you fall, that you are not back where you were before but are starting again, from where you fell.”
“He would talk about beginning again,” Fr. Shea said. “That was a theme that he liked. And he would say, ‘Be always beginning again.’ The saints were always beginning again. That’s how they became saints.”
Fr. Shea explained that people often see Lenten practices, or spiritual practices in general, as tests in which God will be specifically pleased if we pass, but we’re in trouble with the Lord if we don’t.
“It’s really just about growing closer to the Lord. The fact that we may fail often in our resolutions is part of the deal,” Fr. Shea said.
“There’s an old story that Padre Pio would talk a lot about how you have to guard against spiritual self-reliance. He would really emphasize that spiritual self-reliance is very dangerous. What we must learn is to rely on God and not on ourselves. Padre Pio would be very, very quick to absolve even terrible sins that were committed, (but) he was relentless in saying, ‘This is not about self-reliance. You must rely upon God.’”
Sometimes, Lenten practices can also involve fasting from more than just temporal pleasures like pizza, chocolate or coffee. Pope Leo XIV has also called us to fast from dehumanizing communication that pulls us away from God’s love, a step that Fr. Shea believes we can all take, even if it happens later in Lent.
“I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor,” Pope Leo XIV said in this year’s Lenten message. “Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgement, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves. Instead, let us strive to measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities. In this way, words of hatred will give way to words of hope and peace.”
“There’s just something about our world of screens and talking heads that is so rarely face to face, and that is a bit dehumanizing,” Fr. Shea said.
“We might lose sight of the fact that there’s a kind of a violence in the things that people say, or the things that they put on their website. It’s so easy to sit in your room where you’re all by yourself and say something, and you don’t really have to face the response or the consequence to what you said, because there’s nobody there but you.”
Fr. Shea believes Catholics can also take other steps that become sacrifices of time and attention, steps that focus their very being on an intentionally deeper relationship with the Lord. He cites Venerable Fulton Sheen’s nationally broadcasted audio and video talks during the mid-20th century.
“During Lent, every single program, he would say Catholics should attend daily Mass and should extend their visit to a full hour, not just attending Mass but to stay for a half hour afterwards, so that it’s a holy hour,” Fr. Shea said.
“I myself have really been challenged to try to live up to that, because that’s a stiff challenge, but he was very firm on that.”
He cites a teacher of his who even suggested the Lenten practice of adding another 10 to 15 minutes to wake-up routines to simply offer a true morning prayer.
“It’s so hard to get up 10 minutes earlier, (needing) six alarm clocks, lasers in your room to somehow get you to get up,” Fr. Shea joked.
“But the prayer at the beginning of the day is so important. Sometimes it’s the only prayer you (can) do in a day, because a day (can) be very busy, especially if you have a busy job or have children. That morning prayer might be the only real chance you get. When you realize how much you need it, then all of a sudden you’re willing to try and get yourself up 10 or 15 minutes earlier.”
Fr. Shea also stresses that for people going through immense or intense personal struggles, Lenten practices may not necessarily be about adding something that can become what he calls a “crushing burden,” but about simply slowing down and giving God more presence, for both His and our own benefit.
“Sometimes what God is asking is just to stop and to sit quietly. We often don’t think of that as being something that we could give to God,” Fr. Shea said.
“Especially in the world that we live in today, where everything is so fast-paced and frenetic, to just slow down and sit for a few minutes, to say a few prayers or sit silently, it’s both something we offer to God, but it’s also the gift of taking care of ourselves.”