Moving Forward
The path to sainthood is a long road that isn’t traversed overnight.
Each and every day, we trudge forward, always calling to mind the end of the path as motivation. As the poet Rocky Balboa so eloquently put it: “It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.”
There’s some truth there. We have a long way to go, and so many days we get knocked down and beat up. We let our guard down, we give into temptation, and we sin. While it’s inevitable that we will fall, there’s only one way to lose, and that’s if we don’t get back up.
Perfection is our goal and our destination, but that doesn’t mean we have to be perfect along the way. It’s with a humble heart that we dust ourselves off after we fall, strengthen our resolve, and aim to do better.
“Alas, my poor heart, here we are, fallen into the pit we were so firmly resolved to avoid! Well, we must get up again and leave it forever. We must call on God’s mercy and hope that it will help us to be steadier in the days to come. Let us start out again on the way of humility. Let us be of good heart and from this day be more on guard. God will help us; we will do better.” —Saint Francis De Sales