I do not enjoy change. From my own personal experience, I know that, more often than not, I would rather secure a steady personal future with familiar inputs and outputs than deal with the variability of the unknown (I am a mathematics major after all). The familiar is, after all, knowable. It can be modeled and anticipated. The unfamiliar has the potential to be dangerous because I do not know what harm or good can come from it.

Ironically, it is this good desire for something constant, life-giving, and unchanging that can also drive me to the state of complacency. The problem begins when I become comfortable with something that is not right, whether it be a sinful habit, inclination, or attitude that I hold. It becomes an obstacle to changing myself for the better. It inhibits me letting Christ raise me from the dead.

Having just passed the halfway point of Lent, the Church brings us the Sunday of St. John Climacus in order to directly combat this temptation of complacency. I will not be discussing the details of St. John’s life in this piece, though you can read about them here. However, it is important to know that St. John authored a spiritual work by the title of, “The Ladder of Divine Ascent,” which noted certain steps one must take to constantly progress in the spiritual life. And this is the type of life we are to emulate: one that constantly progresses towards both the author and perferter of our Faith, Who is Jesus Christ Himself. We are not, and cannot, remain comfortable where we are. To do so would be to either admit that we are already perfected saints or irredeemable sinners. And both of these dillusions are, in the end, hell.

And so let us remain vigilant, continuing in prayer and keeping the course of the fast. May God grant us His grace to do this.