To lose Jesus does not require the commission of great sin, as we count sin.  The quite easiest way to lose Him is to forget Him and go about our business as though He did not exist.  That is a frequent happening.  For vast numbers Jesus does not exist except for an hour or so on Sunday.  They give Him the formal homage of attendance at church on Sunday morning and then they go out and forget Him, not only for the rest of the week but for the rest of the day.  The religion which thus reduces itself to a minimum of attendance at Mass on Sunday morning is surely not a religion from which much can be expected in the way of spiritual accomplishment.  If it be true that there is a minimum of religious requirement which will ensure that we “go to heaven,” then that sort of religion may be useful; but I do not know that anywhere such a minimum is required.  The statement that I find is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”  The outstanding characteristic of love is surely not niggardliness, but passionate self-giving.  All things are forgiven, not to those who are careful to keep within the limits required, but to those who “love much.”

The study of many cases, the experience of over thirty years in the confessional, convinces me that the chief cause of spiritual failure among Christians is not the irresistible impact of temptation but the lack of spiritual vision.  The average man or woman is not consciously going anywhere; but they are just keeping a rule which is the arbitrary exactment of God.  It might just as well be some other rule.  That is, in their minds, the practice of the spiritual life has no immediate ends; it is not productive of spiritual expansion; it is not a ladder set up on earth to reach heaven on which they are climbing ever nearer God, and on the way are catching ever broader visions of spiritual reality as they ascend.  The knowledge and the love of God are to them phrases, not practical goals, invitations to paths of spiritual adventure.  Hence, having no immediate ends to accomplish, they find the whole spiritual routine dull and unattractive and naturally tend to reduce it to a minimum.  It is not at all surprising that in the end they drop religion altogether, as why should one keep on travelling a road that leads nowhere?  How can one love and serve a Jesus whom one has lost?

The problem of personal religion is the problem of finding Jesus, of bringing life into a right relation to Him.  The plain path is to follow the example of His parents who sought Him “sorrowing.”  Sorrow for having lost Jesus is the true repentance.  Repentance which springs from fear of consequences, or from disgust with our own incompetence and stupidity when we realise that we have made a spiritual failure of life, is an imperfect thing.  True repentance has its origin in love and is therefore directed toward a person.  It is the conviction that we have violated