Contempt for the World's Pleasures
Second Meditation - Divine Example and Precept
I. Let us hear what He has to say about the world's pleasures:
Blessed are the poor. . . the meek. . . those that mourn. . . those that hunger and thirst after justice. . . the clean of heart. . . the peace-makers . . . those that suffer calumny and persecution. . . .What an amazing and enlightening chapter - but a terrifying one to our softness - could be compiled from just the very grave words spoken by our Divine Master about these passing pleasures which so fascinate us!
Woe to the rich. . . to those that have their fill . . . woe to those that jeer and scoff. . . to those who are blessed and honoured by men. . . .
How shattering His words are about those false idols which, in one way or another, we all worship, before whose shrine we have all at one time or another burnt the incense of our heart's desire!
Do I really and truly acknowledge Thee, O Jesus, as my Master and my life's Guide? Do I deserve to be enrolled on Thy register? Even if I do, I must confess that some of Thy lessons have remained unlearnt, and that certain theories of Thine my heart would like to dispute, if not my intellect.
O give me strength, Lord, to declare myself Thy disciple with my whole being, without mental reservations or dark corners unillumined by Thy Light!
II. What arguments does the Son of God use to prove His austere theory? In case His word should not suffice, He adduces a proof that no one can reject, the example of his entire mortal life.
There is not the slightest indication in His life that He ever attached any importance to the things the world esteems so highly and so recklessly pursues as the goal of happiness. He is born in poverty, lives in poverty, dies in destitution; He has no longing to receive anything from anybody, makes no demands for anything, except the human heart; He flees from worldly ostentation, renounces power, hates pleasures, amasses neither silver nor gold, and, if given to Him in alms, He hands it over to Judas's administration, to the only disciple who was covetous and grasping.
The life of Jesus, from stable to sepulchre, bears eloquent testimony to the fact that He, the Teacher of teachers, found nothing in this world's material values worthy of the human heart's ambition; and' His was the most sensitive of human hearts.
Such were Thy inmost convictions, dear Jesus; I realise what they are and I shall not be so rash as to doubt their deep sincerity; with all my sinfulness I have not yet come to deny veracity and honesty to Thy words and Thy irreproachable life.
III. Let me compare my convictions on this matter with the Divine Master's, if only for the sake of understanding that I, too, am included in the universal indictment spoken by David: Omnis homo mendax. (Ps. xcv, 2)
What is my opinion of pleasures, not excluding the illicit ones? By God's mercy, or by some physical impossibility, I may live at a distance from them. . . but is there no faint feeling of regret? is there no secret envy of those who can indulge in them without undue risks?
How do I feel about worldly honours? Don't I strain after them in desire, only to crash against a wall of restraint confining me within the narrow limits of my priestly office and personal limitations?
How do I regard wealth? I have not gone so far as to barter away my Lord and Master, like Judas - at least I don't think I have - but if I stop to think, perhaps I should not like to swear that money has played no part in my priestly zeal. Have I never thought and decided to study, preach, say Mass, or perform other ministerial duties for the sole or primary purpose of raking in a few odd shillings? Have my interests been vested in money rather than in souls and the glory of God?
There seem to be points of doctrine where Christ and myself are not of one and the same mind. How long will this estrangement last?
IV. I am convinced that just as the might of a nation rests on its armies and armaments, so does the strength of a disciple of Christ, especially that of a priest, depend upon detachment from everything worldly and upon closest union with God. This is the meaning of the two comparisons adduced by St. Luke: of the man who has a mind to build a tower but does not sit down first and reckon whether or not he has sufficient money to finish the task; and that of the king setting out to join battle with another king and not studying beforehand whether he can cope with numerical superiority; and our Lord concludes:
So likewise, everyone of you who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple (Luke xiv, 28-33).How much more the clergy would accomplish, even if priests were less numerous, with greater detachment and self-denial! What a handicap our unruly affections are! How they bring us into disrepute!
Resolution
Contempt for this world's pleasures will in future be one of the lessons I shall learn, O Lord, from Thy Cross, on which Thou, in utter detachment and destitution, hast attracted the world.
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.
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