To the Ends of the Earth: Character – Catholic Men’s Devotionals, Week 3 – Man of Discipline

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:1–5

A real man is a disciplined man. The word “discipline,” closely related to the word “disciple,” shows us what we need to do in order to follow Jesus. We must live according to the discipline of our Catholic Faith. This discipline is a call to the commitment of a trained soldier and the earnestness of an obedient child. It involves all areas of our lives: Christian morality, spiritual growth, physical conditioning, personal responsibility, and communal loyalty. It must be woven into every fiber of our being.

To live this discipline with integrity, we have to move away from compartmentalizing our lives into our Sunday best and our weekly weaknesses. In all we say and do, we must be disciples to the core.

What specifically does this discipline entail? This week, we’ll focus on five key ideas:

1.         Discipline is a lifestyle, not a task.

We cannot force our faith, nor can we turn it into a series of “to-do” lists like church attendance, prayer, kind speech, and good works. Yes, we need to work at our faith, often pushing ourselves to be consistent about our actions, but true discipline integrates our activities so that living out the Faith becomes as natural as breathing. When others see us, they should see men filled with the Spirit of Christ.

2.         Discipline means understanding our limitations.

Far too often, we look at our endeavors and our virtuous lifestyles and think it is something we have done on our own. The reality, however, is that without the grace of God empowering us, we would never be able to be men after God’s own heart. Knowing who we are before God brings humility and allows God to be the author of our daily lives.

3.         Discipline surrenders to God’s pruning.

A skilled vinedresser promotes the growth of his vines by pruning away dead branches and lifting drooping branches toward the sun. Part of the discipline of our faith is allowing God to do this pruning work in us. We must be willing to allow the Divine Gardener to remove our sinful habits and cultivate new growth in the light of his love. Sometimes this process is painful, but it is the only way for us to bear fruit and pour ourselves out to the waiting world.

4.         Discipline must be uncompromising.

As men, we face temptations every day. We all too easily fall into sins of selfishness and pride. Like a vine that wraps itself around a healthy tree over time, small indiscretions or “harmless” sins can slowly and almost imperceptibly take hold of us until they begin to choke the life out of us. By God’s grace, we can overcome these sins by resisting the devil’s temptations and fleeing the habits of the flesh as soon as they manifest themselves in our lives. This commitment to stand firm against even small sins develops a habit that becomes stronger and more stable the more we continue it.

5.         Discipline makes us ready to begin again every time we fall.

All of us fall into sin sometimes. But the more discipline we have in our lives, the more easily we can get back on the right path. It’s easy as men to take an all-or-nothing approach to our failures. We can see any break with God through sin as canceling everything God has done in us and for us. Yet our Christian walk is a constant series of stumbles and sturdy steps to the place where we lay down our lives for the Lord. Jesus stumbled on the way to Calvary, yet picked himself up and continued his journey for our salvation. So we don’t have to let our falls discourage us: all we can do is receive his mercy, get up again, and follow him in faith.

A Call to Action

In his classic book The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry tells of a young prince who was a faithful gardener on a tiny planet where seeds blew in with the wind. Some seeds became beautiful roses, but others were dangerous and grew into giant baobabs. The Little Prince knew that when a baobab first appeared, it would look as harmless as a rose. But if neglected for too long, it could grow so large that it would engulf and tear apart his tiny planet with its huge roots.

“A baobab,” he said, “is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces.”

In the words of the Little Prince, keeping his planet safe was all a “question of discipline.” And so it is with our souls. If we allow the seeds of sin and selfishness to take root in our hearts, we may not be able to uproot those vices when they grow into full-fledged strongholds. We must guard our souls through holy Catholic discipline so that even the seemingly harmless seeds of “small” sins cannot take over our lives.

You can learn more about the To the Ends of the Earth devotionals HERE