“Do it again!”
Blessed Fulton Sheen in his book Moods and Truths, in the chapter The Thrill of Monotony, points out that there is a positive distaste for repetition that has overtaken our present age; a constant demand for new thrills, new excitements, constant change that will arouse our jaded sensibilities. Our society hates monotony. If asked why monotony is so distasteful to our age, one is met with this answer: Everything that is full of life loves change, for the characteristic of life is movement toward a new goal and urges toward new pleasures. Being essentially directed to novelty, life can never rest in the tediousness of repetition. But Fulton Sheen will go on to point out that this argument has never appeared to thinking men as actually sound. In fact, the contrary is true. If you’ve ever watched a child experience something that brings them joy, the child doesn’t get bored after once or twice, they are constantly saying, “Do it again!” If you bounce a child upon your knees, the child full of the passion of life, will cry out, “Do it again!” If you tell the child a delightful fairytale, the child doesn’t say, “Oh, that is an old one. I heard that last week.” They say, “Tell me again!” The child is not easily depressed with repetition, and with joyous appeal will sing out, “Do it again!” Simply because the child is full of life, he wants to see things unchanged, and to have them repeated over and over again.
We are made in the image and likeness of God; and the child in their innocence and simplicity, still holds this divine aspect, that is true of God, the love of repetition. Since the beginning of time roses have gone on producing more roses, canaries have gone on singing and producing more canaries, and each day the sun rises and sets as God says, “Do it again!”
It is the great Encore of the world. But not only the beauty of creation is new every morning. As Jeremiah tells us in Lamentations 3:21-23, “This I will call to mind and therefore, I will hope: The Lord’s acts of mercy are not exhausted, his compassion is not spent; They are renewed each morning—great is your faithfulness!”
While, because of our sinful nature, we may tire of God’s works; He never tires of working for us. Yet, if we want to be like Him, we must learn to keep on doing the same over and over again. For God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus doesn’t tell us to take up our cross once and that is enough. He says, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23). When Peter asks Jesus how many times we should forgive our neighbor, Jesus doesn’t say once is enough, or even two or three times, or even seven times, but 77 times. As Christians we must learn to: DO IT AGAIN. Do the daily routine again each day, be kind again and again each day and each hour, turn to God for each new temptation, be merciful with everyone to whom stands before you in their misery. How do we DO IT AGAIN, without growing tired and bored? We do again and again what He told us to do the night before He died: we partake in the Eucharist - “Do this in remembrance of Me (Luke 22:19).” When a person has a goal, an ideal, they are okay with repetition, because by repetition comes knowledge and skill.
What is an ideal? It is something that is great, superior, worthy and valuable.
A true Christian must be a person of ideals and if we want to become truly great, we will become OTHER INCARNATIONS OF THE WORD. We will allow Jesus to live in us and do His work again and again in us. We will wake up each morning, and with each passing hour of the day, we will turn to Jesus in prayer and say, “Live in me, act in me, think in me, and love through me”, and we will forever more say to Him, “Do it again!”