Mortification
Second Meditation - Priestly Motives
I. My priestly state imperiously demands mortification. It is a collar-harness strapped round my neck by God's Hand from the moment He imprinted on me the Character of my priesthood. My enemies will assault me; they have already done so with greater rage and unexpectedness than other mortals. The world, with its traps and snares, with its scorn and jeering; Satan, with the full force of his wily seductions, so consciously aware of what he stands to gain by my downfall; the very delicate tasks entrusted to me, so exceedingly sublime, so numerous; my own priestly state, so holy in itself; all these are sources of conflict.
However well-balanced I may be, however vigorous my free will, I am necessarily, by the very nature of things, up against a host of difficulties lashing me in wave after wave and seeking to undermine my courage and my peace of mind. Mine must be a heart of diamond strength not to succumb ignominiously, but to confront and confound them all.
And the struggle and resistance demanded of me is no other than the "self-denial" of the Gospel, the "mortifying of the ways of nature through the power of the Spirit" of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans.
II.
"The time will surely come, when men will grow tired of sound doctrine, always itching to hear something fresh; and so they will provide themselves with a continuous succession of new teachers, as the whim takes them.. . ." (2 Tim. iv, 3)Does this apply to me? Am I deceiving the faithful with soft words and booming periods or gentle harmonies, just catering for that "itch" to hear something fresh, instead of giving them the staple food of sound doctrine?
The nerves of Christian living are not the poetry and magnificence of public ritual, nor what we add to it of what is flattering to the senses; the soul of all Christian endeavour, modelled on Christ crucified, is contained in these words of St. James the Apostle:
"If he is to offer service pure and unblemished in the sight of God, who is our Father, he must take care of orphans and widows in their need, and keep himself unspotted from the world." (James i, 27)Which means that we must offer resistance to our perverse inclinations so as to reduce them to reason, and in all our good works we must pursue the good and the pure, a costly feat, and bring our inmost being in harmony with the purity and serene holiness of God.
People will listen respectfully when I preach the austere lesson only if the most short-sighted in the congregation see it unmistakably exemplified, through mortification, in my personal conduct; otherwise it might be better not to mention the subject, or not to preach at all.
III. There are two basic principles of Christian and priestly mortification, which we should do well to enumerate before specifying individual practices; they are as follows:
1. To forbid myself, for all time and without the slenderest hope of turning back, every type of gratification, pleasure, pastime, and possession which I cannot reach out to without straying from the path or going beyond the circle of restrictions and prohibitions marked out for the man, the Christian, and the priest.
2. Resolutely to embrace, as part of the cross which Christ, the God of the Cross, has laid upon my shoulders, all the unpleasantness, bitterness, contradictions, and privations entailed by the exact performance of my duties.
3. These are the two basic principles of justice; they cannot be transgressed or undermined without my incurring what is sinful and without my being included among the ranks of those souls whom Christ rejects with the terrible curse:
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; I know not whence ye are. Luke xiii, 27)I am, therefore, going to be generous with God, who so generously died for me. I am going to pluck up courage to embrace even mortifications of supererogation: such and such an austerity, maceration, or fast. And I will bend my back to the ministerial duties that are positively painful; for example, hearing confessions, visiting the sick, teaching the catechism, etc.; doing it purely to please God, even though no one or no rule may oblige me to take them up.
Resolutions
1 Jesus Christ, who in former times was often called "Captain-in-command" and the "Lord of hosts", has, besides the general line of battle, certain strategic positions scattered here and there which must be defended in a special manner. One of these positions is my heart, under heavy attack and entrusted to my courage and loyalty. And the struggle, with its various incidents, centering round this position is called spiritual mortification.
But what about those traditional practices of bodily punishment: hair-shirt, discipline, black fast, short sleep, etc.? "Oh, that's not my line," you may say, "those weird things give me the creeps." Yes, and like a child whistling in the dark, you mask your lack of courage by laughing them to scorn; "Things of the past; dead and gone; gross exaggerations. . . ." Cowardly, effeminate soul, why not try one of them occasionally? Why such tender love for sinful flesh? Why not do something to be able to say with the Apostle: "I buffet my own body, and make it my slave"? (l Cor. ix, 27)
2. If, after examining my life before God, I discover something redundant, superfluous, effeminate and out of keeping with priestly simplicity and austerity, either in my clothing, bed, food, furniture, or in my reactions to whatever is unpleasant, I shall resolve to root it out unmercifully.
3. I am determined to be a man of hard work; work that is becoming, useful and constant. Every living particle of my being must be linked together by a solid occupation; only at the cost of this apparent slavery shall I purchase true freedom of the spirit, the indepehdence of a child of God, and self-mastery.
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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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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!
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