Steve Redgrave is 34, is 6' 5", weighs 225 pounds, and for the last 18 years has devoted himself to rowing, and only that. A six-hour workout each day, seven days a week. For some ten races a year, 6 1/2 minutes each. He ends up being the world's top rower, 5 Olympic medals if he won at Atlanta, which he was predicted to do. Now he resigns, with no idea of what ever he will do with the rest of his life.

He is a classic case of commitment, dedication, discipline. And in his instance of incredible tenacity, for rowing is unique in that it is a fast-start sport: you row at top speed instantly. The result is highest level lactic acid in the muscles and excruciating pain. 80% of rowing is learning to cope with pain.

How is it, then, that we who seek love assume that somehow it should not be too difficult in the grace of God, require no great endeavor? Need no demanding discipline? For that is what we seem to do. Yet, after all, love is the greatest of arts, is a world away and beyond athletics, skills of whatever kind, prowess and competence in whatever field. It is the art of arts. And the love of God as art is sanctity. There is no greater good on earth. Or in Heaven. And it is literally a life-time work. We cannot assume, then, that it is easily come by.

Not when He says things like: "Take up My cross." "Who would save his life will lose it." "Let a person deny self and follow Me." "What profit is it to gain a world and lose one's soul?"

In the face of which dodges are in order. That is to say, short-cuts, quick routes and easy answers. This is delusion and trap. This is marsh. Quagmire. Here is the Dismal Swamp of Carolina transferred to Redgrave spirituality; and talk of synchronicity, coincidence, apotheosis, energy fields, universal sacredness, mystical illumination, higher consciousness, transcendent love. And the best part: without pain and effort. No rule of life. No laws. No commandments. No obligations. No confrontation with evil. No repentance. No penance. It is ethics-free and morals-free, this fantasy world. And above all, no institution, least of all, God forbid, a patriarchal one.

And people buy into it. Pay for it. Eat it up. So Augustine did and got so tangled he was years breaking free.

Thus with today's Catholics too. Who, God knows, need law and rule, need penitence and penance. Need authority, direction; need sacrament and the Word, need absolution and anointing, need prayer.

On all of which many turn their backs. Everyone knows going to Sunday Mass is no longer a universally accepted tradition. Among Christians, Catholics rate very poorly in financial Church support --always revealing. And do not differ that much from other Americans in many attitudes and practices in the world of marriage. That's why President Clinton had a Catholic woman speak for abortion. She is not unusual and he knows that.

This sad picture means not mere disenchantment with the Church, but covert and overt hostility. Disagreement. And tantamount if not actual departure. Talk of vocations in such a setting is a bit naive.

It is obvious that such are not about to turn to a disciplined unselfish life in which the Cross is a basic theme, the acceptance of suffering a dimension of Christian reality. A New Age spirituality will suffice for what Kennedy calls "Disneyland posing as Chartres."

All of which is a bit irrelevant for monks. Neo-gnosticism is not an issue we cope with. But the mood is in the air, the attitude spreads. We are touched by a tainted milieu.

Hence it is not without point to note the heroic sacrifice men and women will make to attain excellence in some profession:  from athletics, to dance, to music, medicine, how many fields. This should spur us on, remind us of God's gift to us, how necessary a generous response.

And this is said by way of encouragement to carry on in a so good work, a work often without much tangible result. Surely there is no professional in whatever field from piano to shot-put who does not at times sense defeat, failure, lack of progress, no tangible reward for so much effort; not reward really, but response, growth, a sense of achieving something? And still they carry on. Think sometimes of the man who gave 18 years to rigorous training for perfection in rowing a coxless pair, a perfection that won him 5 gold Olympic medals. So much for so little.

We do so little for so much that we may feel shame. Called to the service of God in a most beautiful life, with a promise of Eternal Life to follow. Even if we know a lactic acid of our own, we carry on in God's generous grace. And so, hopefully, encourage the faithful to deep love for God, for Christ, for Church -- the love that is truly one's life-work, the work of a lifetime.   Amen.