Feb 16 Sun
Should I practice detachment?
People had come from all over Israel to hear what Our Lord had to say. He ‘looked’ at his disciples and announced that they would be repaid with great blessings in heaven if they suffered any evil for Him.
To enter the Kingdom of heaven, we must be detached from riches.
Riches certainly include money and property, but also pertain to everything we value: talent, skill, knowledge, appearance, family, and friends.
Jesus instructs his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone.
We must be willing to set all these good things aside so as not to be hindered in our pursuit of perfect charity.
Why? Because in this life, we must seek the true good, even if it requires sacrifice. If God’s Will is our goal, then the goods of creation are subordinate to that and are either a means to that end or in opposition to it.
Detachment from goods helps us understand the beatitude “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Those who have renounced all their “goods” now see everything as a gift from God and as belonging to Him, not our own property.
Christ, being God, is the origin and the “owner” of every possible good, yet for our sakes he became poor.
Christ grieves over the rich because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods.
To live the virtue of detachment from goods when we feel their sting, we can adopt the aspiration, “All that is mine is yours” (Lk 15:31). These are the words of the father of the prodigal son, to his older, faithful son. When we say them to God, they have two meanings.
First, it is the truth, everything I think is mine, actually comes from God. So literally, “All that is mine is yours.”
Second, it is the offering of every entrusted to me back to God. Thus, it is like saying:
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.
To become detached from goods, while simultaneously serving others, we can give alms; this includes our time, talents, and wealth.
Another way to grow in detachment is through passive mortifications, accepting and offering to God those evils that come upon us. They can be tiny pinpricks or significant sufferings. They can be anything we get that we don’t want.
Active mortifications are things we do voluntarily that go against our basic wishes to enjoy pleasure and avoid pain or to enhance our pride.
“That joke, that witty remark held on the tip of your tongue; the cheerful smile for those who annoy you; that silence when you’re unjustly accused; your friendly conversation with people whom you find boring and tactless; the daily effort to overlook one irritating detail or another in the persons who live with you . . . this, with perseverance, is indeed solid interior mortification."
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