Does Our Spiritual Life Need More Discipline And Less Conflict?

[JReducation]

I was watching an old movie with Audrey Hepburn which I had never seen, THE NUN’S STORY. I looked up the story in Google and found that it is the story of a real person, who died about 20-years ago. I don’t know how much of the actual story is edited for Hollywood. That would not be surprising.

Despite the Hollywood touches, there are several messages in the movie that are relevant to all Christians. These moved me. I wanted to share them, because I believe they represent the struggles that many of us feel at one point or another on our spiritual journey.

One conflict that hits you right between the eyes from the very beginning is the problem of obedience. Where does one draw the line between obedience to one’s perception of how things ought to be and what the Church asks of us?

Today, we are faced with many choices: abortion, same-sex alliances, artificial birth control, euthanasia, Tridentine mass vs. the revised liturgy, divorce and remarriage, just to name a few. How difficult it is to obey when the world teaches us that these are antiquated notions or when our conscience struggles with what we perceive as a good that the Church teaches us is the wrong path to follow. How does one maintain one’s sense of freedom and submit to legitimate Church authority at the same time?

In one dialogue in the movie, the young sister tells her superior that she wants to become a good nurse and a good nun. Her superior responds that she must first become a good nun, then a good nurse. She reminds her that she did not enter the convent to be a nurse, but to be a nun.

I thought about this carefully and realized that this rule applies to all of us. Are we here to be good doctors, teachers, business men and women or are we here to be good Christians first? Sometimes it’s difficult for us to see this. We focus so much on what we do, that we forget that we are called to be. We allow what we do to define us. What we are should guide what we do, not the other way around. How many of us identify ourselves as “I’m an engineer” or “I’m a teacher.” Is what we do who we really are? Isn’t that too limited?

One of the most striking issues that I found in this movie, which seems to be a problem for many of us was the sister’s inability to accept that she was perfect. It was interesting to observe how the more she tried to be the perfect religious, the more she realized that she was falling short. It seems that her problem went deeper than following rules and customs. Her greatest weakness was her inability to accept that she was not perfect. Her desire of all or nothing is not uncommon to many of us. We fail to humbly accept that we are works in progress. God is not done with us.

We work hard at being better Christians. We pray harder. We try to do more works of charity, attend mass more frequently, and make resolutions to improve ourselves. We often fail here and there. Instead of accepting the fact that we are on a journey and success is not measured by achieving some victory over our weakness, but real perfection is achieved through humility, we become angry and bitter with ourselves and those around us. We tend to place the same demands on others. We expect them to overcome human weaknesses over night. We fail to recognize that the more often we admit who we are before God and our conscience, the closer we come to Christ. True perfection is achieved not by perfect practice of customs and rules, but by honesty, even when that means recognizing that we are still in progress.

It seems that we all need to work on

1. obedience,
2. being over doing and
3. recognizing that we will only be perfect in God’s time, not ours.

Maybe our spiritual life needs a little more discipline and less conflict.

Pax et Bonum

JR

 

[Mark_Robert]

The problem with following the dictates of one’s own judgement is that there is a strong tendency to fashion God after our own image. If we decide for oursevles what is right and wrong then inevitably “right” becomes what is convenient and serviceable to one’s corrupt desires and “wrong” becomes equated with whatever contradicts or frustrates our sinful inclinations. We need a guiding force outside ourselves (the teaching authority of the Catholic Church) inspired by the Holy Spirit to lead us in all things spiritual. The fact that many Catholic teachings fly in the face of our wants and desires merely proves their divine authenticity. That is why obedience to ALL the teachings of the Church is so crucial. It forces us to conform through grace to God’s will as opposed to vainly attempting to make God conform to what we want.

 

[JReducation]

The problem with following the dictates of one’s own judgement is that there is a strong tendency to fashion God after our own image. If we decide for oursevles what is right and wrong then inevitably “right” becomes what is convenient and serviceable to one’s corrupt desires and “wrong” becomes equated with whatever contradicts or frustrates our sinful inclinations. We need a guiding force outside ourselves (the teaching authority of the Catholic Church) inspired by the Holy Spirit to lead us in all things spiritual. The fact that many Catholic teachings fly in the face of our wants and desires merely proves their divine authenticity. That is why obedience to ALL the teachings of the Church is so crucial. It forces us to conform through grace to God’s will as opposed to vainly attempting to make God conform to what we want.

Your attention to obedience is correct. How about the two other points that are also essential to spiritual growth?

JR

 

[Augustine]

I’m a fan of Audry and I’ve recently watched this movie too.

I think that you draw some conclusions that even if they’re right perhaps do not consider the character’s actual situation as a professed nun.

I actually think that she was the victim of an improper formation in her order as pictured in the movie. For example:

1. 
   *]She wasn’t aware of the order’s contemplative nature requiring long periods of silence when she entered the order, something that she was not inclined to.
   *]She’d come across some issues while still a novice and, unlike another novice with related conflicts, she didn’t reconsider her calling as a member of the order.
   *]She had disobedience issues also about things not related to her work as a nurse.
   Had the order been more attentive and had she been better formed, she wouldn’t have reached permanent vows. In the end, her sisters in religion and herself were hurt by her leaving the order. Perhaps she did have a vocation to being a nun, but she was definitely in the wrong order.
   
   Regardless, the character had a definite vocation to being a nurse and I hope that the woman who it was based on found happiness in it.
   
   

 

[JReducation]

I’m a fan of Audry and I’ve recently watched this movie too.

I think that you draw some conclusions that even if they’re right perhaps do not consider the character’s actual situation as a professed nun.

I actually think that she was the victim of an improper formation in her order as pictured in the movie. For example:

1. 
   *]She wasn’t aware of the order’s contemplative nature requiring long periods of silence when she entered the order, something that she was not inclined to.
   *]She’d come across some issues while still a novice and, unlike another novice with related conflicts, she didn’t reconsider her calling as a member of the order.
   *]She had disobedience issues also about things not related to her work as a nurse.
   Had the order been more attentive and had she been better formed, she wouldn’t have reached permanent vows. In the end, her sisters in religion and herself were hurt by her leaving the order. Perhaps she did have a vocation to being a nun, but she was definitely in the wrong order.
   
   Regardless, the character had a definite vocation to being a nurse and I hope that the woman who it was based on found happiness in it.
   
   

1. 
   Thanks for your response. I wasn’t trying to analyze the film. By the way, Marie Louise Habet, the original sister lived a very good life as a Christian nurse. But that’s another thread.
   
   What I found interesting in the film is that the issues of obedience, acceptance of one’s limits and working with them, and focusing on who we are over what we do are conflicts that represent most of humanity, not just this character.
   
   I was wondering others felt the same and how people deal with it.
   
   JR

 

[Augustine]

I actually agree with your conclusions. I just think that some of your assumptions and the logic which you followed were incorrect.

For example, you indentified her being a nun with being a Christian. One doesn’t need to be a religious to be a Christian. In her case, she was part of an order of Catholic nuns and her superior was right in pointing out that as a member of her order she had avowed to obey her superior as a nun before her career.

Likewise, I, as a married man, avowed to be faithful to my wife. This vow is above my career, if one ever comes in conflict with the other, and I cannot go against this vow a still be a good Christian. But a single Catholic person who haven’t made such a vow to a spouse is obviously not obligated to it and is free to pursue his career without such impediments and be a good Christian.

So, how obedience plays in one’s being a Christian depends on one’s state of life as a single, married or religious person. But, again, I agree with your conclusions.



PS: Good to know about Ms. Habet.