Wednesday, October 5, 2016

A Creature of Habit

Baxter is a creature of habit. You can almost set your watch by his daily routine. He rises with the sound of the feeder exposing a portion of food for his breakfast at 4:30 AM. He gets a drink of water twice after he has had his share of kibble-- I guess to wash it down. Then it’s a bathroom break and a rest on the bedroom rug before he makes his move to the cat mattress for a serious hour and a half nap. Before I leave for Mass though, he will get up while I’m having breakfast for his slug of “cat milk”. What he does while I’m gone for the morning is a bit of a mystery. I expect he sleeps for a good portion of the morning, but I also suspect that he has a few tricks up his paw that he keeps hidden from me. I think he might roam the dining room table when I’m not around because he knows that he is not supposed to be up there. I also think he explores the boxes in the spare room where my old tax returns are kept. He wants to find out if he’s getting his fair share of my assets.

We all have habits to get us through the day, week or year. Some are obvious to anyone who knows us. Others may be hidden from view. Habits keep our life steady. They create an order to our activities. Because we don’t have to think about them, they allow for less effort in getting things done.Getting ready for the day in the morning, and ready for bed at night usually involve a routine that we follow out of habit. Weekly, I gather the garbage for pick up on Mondays. Every four or five weeks I get a haircut in the same style from the same barber. The holidays have longstanding habits associated with them. We call them traditions. Certain foods, festive gatherings and decorations are all a regular part of our celebrating certain seasons. We don’t have to wonder what we will do this Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc. We know the ritual.

The Church uses habits as well. The liturgical cycle is fundamentally the same every year. We are asked to develop a habit of Sunday Mass, regular participation in the Sacrament of Penance, daily prayer, almsgiving and service to others. Even the teachings of the Church are meant to form a habit of mind that sets our thinking in a certain direction when issues arise. These habits are meant to incorporate us into God’s ordering of life, because through these activities we participate in God’s actions in our world. Yet, there is a catch.

Habits are the first step in forming us as disciples, but they alone won’t get us to a life style of discipleship. The ordering of our actions to God’s ways has to be internalized. We have to understand the reason for these habits, allow them to change our sentiments and attitudes, and use the values they embody to set our priorities. Habits of religious behavior are meant to shape our characters as persons of faith. When religious practices become more than mindless routines, they mark us as virtuous people. We do what we do because these actions show who we are and reinforce our faith in what we can yet become with God’s grace.

Baxter’s instincts lead him to a regular habit of living. It’s his survival technique. Our desire to find God leads us to form habits, but these practices are meant to help us grow as persons who reflect the holy mystery in our lives, and continue to seek its love and understanding. They are habits of the heart—not gross instincts—that in time are meant to form a person who thinks, feels, decides and acts as God would in our world.

-Monsignor Statnick