As we begin this New Year, many of us have hopes of being better than we were last year, we have made our resolutions and are trying to change our vises into virtues.  It is a noble cause, yet after so many years of failed attempts at sainthood, we find that the road of sanctity still stretches far ahead of us… seemingly just beyond our grasp. And that even with our daily ‘battles’ we still have so far to go to reach our reward. As we approach this second week of the new year, we might feel a bit daunted by our resolutions, but as Catholics… as Christians... we must continue to fight the good fight…

One of the most damaging things we do to our souls, is that we hold onto things. Both physical things and spiritual things. Things that we shouldn’t hold onto in the first place. Most of these things we should discard or more importantly…  give over to the Lord. But we are stubborn…. and we hold onto these things...these ‘precious’ things‘  one such of which, is feelings of resentment.

Resentment.… It is that bitter beat in our heart, put there by our own free will. Without our consent, it would have no room to grow. But we are stained, marked by sin, and without even realizing the damage that we are allowing… we give it room to grow. Once we allow it to reign in our hearts it has the ability to destroy all the good that God wishes to give us. It is that poisonous!

When we hold onto resentment, we lose our hold of the Lord… we slip... and we begin to fill those places in our heart with bitterness and anger… We, you and I, replace the good with the bad… We are stubborn, and we continue to think that we can punish someone else with our resentment… but all we are doing is punishing ourselves. Someone once said that resentment is like drinking poison and expecting your enemy to die!

It is an active work against the Lord and it will consume all that God has seen as good… and when we allow it to fester, it will take over … Given free reign in our hearts, it will take on a life of it’s own, crushing us and making it impossible for us to grow the way God intended. And instead of growing in the Lord, we end up giving to the devil what rightly belongs to God…. None of us want that, do we? So during these tempting times, let us hold fast to our goals and give all of our burdens to the Lord, praying that His mercy may be upon us and guide us through our difficult days…

To read an awesome article on this same topic, please click on the following link to a post by Father D. Longenecker.  The Dark Beast of Resentment.