Presumption and Staying Vigilant

December 2nd Readings Reflection: Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s Gospel, Jesus urges us to remain vigilant “and pray that [we] have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” This passage is a warning against the sin of presumption, by which we presume that we will be saved “by [our] own efforts without God’s help, or by God’s help without [our] own efforts” (Baltimore Catechism No. 3, q. 208). Presumption is a grave sin against the virtue of hope, by which we firmly trust in God’s saving power. The sin of presumption blinds us to God’s grace, and the soul that persists in presumption will be caught “by surprise like a trap” when it faces God at its particular judgement.

Presumption is contrary to fear of the Lord, which is one of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit that we receive in the Sacrament of Confirmation. “Fear” in this sense does not mean terror; rather, fear of the Lord means reverence and holy awe toward our infinite God. When we commit the sin of presumption, we refuse to acknowledge God as our infinitely wise Creator and merciful Judge. Instead, we consider ourselves to be higher than God, committing the same mistake that lured our first parents into sin (cf. Gen 3:5 DRB). We either assume that God will let us into Heaven without any effort on our part, or we assume that we don’t need God’s grace and can get ourselves to Heaven without His assistance. Both stances are detrimental to our spiritual lives, because as soon as we begin to presume of our salvation, we immediately lose our reverence and love for God.

Where there is no love, there is no relationship, and without a personal relationship with God, we cannot find the happiness for which we all innately long. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee,” as St. Augustine of Hippo famously wrote. The end (or purpose) of our existence is union with God. However, God has given us the gift of free will, which we can use to prevent our attaining union with God.

The choice is ours to cooperate with God’s grace or to take matters into our own hands and try to make our way through life without God. We cannot attain eternal salvation without God’s grace, for Jesus Himself told us, “[W]ithout [M]e you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). May the holy season of Advent, which we are about to enter, be filled with many graces and blessings, and may we accept every grace that God sends us, recognizing that it is only through grace that we can reach eternal salvation.

Public domain