The Counsels in Daily Life

This week, the evangelical counsels have been prominent in both our novitiate conferences and in the Gospel readings. The Wednesday Gospel, for example, is one in which the counsels really stood out to me even though they are hidden in the parable: the servants received an extravagant gift (one talent was about fifteen years' wages) that is unmerited (chastity), given to them in trust for another (poverty) to use according to the master's will (obedience).

In meditating on this, what came up was living these counsels in daily life. Not having taken public vows can seem to make living the counsels a lofty goal in the future; as a novice I am obliged to live the counsels now in a 'hidden' way, but my daily life (custody of the senses, material dependence on others, fulfilling my obligations and obeying superiors willingly) is that of religious life, of living the counsels in the ordinary actions of everyday life.

I also reflected on responsibility, that those faithful in small matters are to be entrusted with greater matters. In the human mind, responsibility is something to be earned, something given after trustworthiness has been proven. But what I had from this Gospel was a sense of divine pedagogy: we do not prove ourselves to God in order to earn gifts but rather he trains us for greater responsibilities through lesser ones. It is for our own sake, for our own growth that some things are withheld and others allowed, that growing pains occur before new doors are opened and we are given our food in the proper season.