Traditional Catholic Teaching - FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Galations 5: 25.

The raising of the widow's son at Naim may remind us that we ought to let Christ raise us to a new life in the spirit, and through and with Him we should lead a life pleasing to God. St. Paul teaches us this lesson in to-day's epistle.

If our life is to be truly pious, we must do everything in the spirit of Christ, for whatever is done without that spirit is worthless in God's sight. True piety rejects prayers, ceremonies and exterior practices of devotion if they are devoid of the inward spirit of devotion, humility and obedience; but it retains carefully such exterior devotional practices as are penetrated with the spirit of true piety and earnest striving after virtue, and are calculated to give life and vigor to this interior spirit of religion.

There are, for instance, many acts of mortification that have been practised by holy men and women in every age, and have helped them to make progress in virtue, and to subjugate their flesh to their spirit. This last is the chief object of all exterior practices of mortification, for, although the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak, and therefore the concupiscence of the flesh must be curbed, and the body brought as far as possible under the dominion of the mind. How could the spirit remain free from sin, if it were not strong enough to subdue the lusts of the flesh.

Works of exterior mortification, besides enabling the spirit to gain dominion over the flesh, help also to foster a spirit of penance, and to obtain many graces from God, provided they are done for love of Him. As we read in Holy Scripture, wisdom is not found in the land of them that live in delights (Job 28: 13). The chief means of outward mortification are solitude, fasting, vigils, and other discomforts, that we impose upon ourselves for love of God. Many of the saints practised all these things, and although it is not permissible for us to follow their example without advice, it is well to know something about them, partly that the attractions of the world may not cause us entirely to neglect or ridicule them, and partly that we may not, through mistaken zeal, regard these merely external penances as constituting true piety, or injure our bodily health without promoting the welfare of our souls. We ought also to know what mortifications it is safe and expedient to practise in our daily life. Many of the saints had recourse to terrible austerities; they fasted, scourged themselves, deprived themselves of sleep, and wore instruments of penance; we hear of some who withdrew into solitary places and lived in caves or in the desert, communing only with God; others fasted so strictly that they seemed to live on Holy Communion alone, whilst others never wearied of spending whole nights in prayer and praise, and of frequently employing instruments of penance.

Very various opinions are expressed with regard to all these austerities, which are condemned by some as absolute folly. Yet our Lord's words, "By their fruits you shall know them," lead us to think otherwise. If the men and women who did these things had displayed obstinacy and selfishness, or had clung to their faults, we should have had to concur in the common opinion and say: "Yes, we may know them by their fruits; all that these people did was folly." But what fruits did they actually produce? We read of the humility and modesty of these ascetics, how they forgot themselves in their zeal for the good of others, how heroically they resisted the greatest temptations, how by their example and teaching they helped to save thousands, and committed only the trifling faults due to human frailty, and if we then call to mind our Lord's words, "By their fruits you shall know them," we have to acknowledge their spiritual life to have been so glorious that their external mortifications cannot possibly have been foolish.

The saints certainly were prompted by God to act as they did, therefore they cannot be charged with folly; the charge is more applicable to those who criticize them. It is, however, foolish to imitate them recklessly. Some people in their excessive zeal resolve to practise the austerities of the saints, not perceiving that what was heroic virtue on their part, because they acted in the spirit of obedience to God's special impulse, is in their own case folly, if not actual sin, because it is undertaken without, or even against the will of God. Such people are only too apt to display, as the fruits of their austerities, obstinacy, disguised under a pious exterior — pride and persistence in faults that are manifest to all except themselves. The result of their uncalled for and extraordinary austerities is always folly, if it is nothing worse, but they try to justify it by quoting the examples of the saints. By their eccentricities they attract attention, and yet are plainly full of faults, and consequently the world looks down, not only upon them, but upon the religion that they profess, as if it inculcated such perverse exaggerations. Therefore, all that such people accomplish with their ostensible mortification is to bring discredit upon religion.

That we may avoid making mistakes with regard to external mortification, and find the right path to follow in our own lives, we ought to know the rules under which alone it is right to practise it. The consideration of these rules must be deferred until we make our next meditation; but let us now renew our resolution to avail ourselves of the little opportunities for mortification that occur every day, and to examine ourselves daily on our fidelity to this practice. Especially let us strive to become more like the saints in virtue, above all in their heroic charity towards God and man, and in their obedience and piety. Amen.

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