Mar 9 Sun
What are small mortifications?
These forty days of Lent we participate in Christ’s forty days of fasting in the desert. Then, the devil came to test him.
The devil is super intelligent but he cannot read our souls: he cannot “hear” our thoughts or see our interior life. The devil had been watching Christ from his birth. He knew Jesus was an extraordinary man.
The devil went on the assumption that Jesus was “a” or “the” son of God, but that designation can mean many things, from just being a faithful follower, to being the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
Two of the three temptations began with, “If you are the son of God.” If Jesus were only a man, however miraculously endowed, maybe the devil could get him to reject God by disobeying God’s will.
Thus, in the first temptation, the devil invites Christ to use his power to perform a miracle for himself: turn stones into bread to save his physical body.
The devil also knew the main things fallen humanity likes: pleasure, wealth, power, and glory. If you have the power, you can get all the wealth and pleasure you want. Glory—to be admired by all—was perhaps more important to men in the past than it is to us today. Bow down before me, the devil claims, and everyone will bow down before you.
The greatest fear of every human being is suffering and death. If you are so special, the devil says, prove it: Throw yourself down and God will rescue you.
Our Lord withstands each of these temptations, something we do not do every time we sin.
We all have sinned.
Contrition is our turning away from sin, and then we say to God, “I am sorry about that.”
In this time of Lent, in addition to prayer, we can perform small or large mortifications, fasting, almsgiving, or anything to express our inner sorrow.
A small mortification is a little act of penance, a sacrifice we voluntarily make and then join to some intention. It is a sacrifice joined to an intention.
First, there is the sacrifice. Mortifications can be active or passive and mental or bodily.
If I skip dessert, that is an active bodily sacrifice: I’m doing something that mainly bothers a bodily appetite.
If I turn away from a sinful memory or something that makes me angry, that is a passive mental mortification: I’m enduring something I didn’t ask for which is mostly in my mind.
Mortifications can also be planned or spontaneous.
If I know I have to get up at 5:30 a.m. and I know that is going to be difficult, I can plan to offer that up for something.
If I am suddenly stuck in traffic, I now have an opportunity to endure a difficulty I had not foreseen.
Next is the “offering for something” side. These small acts of penance can be offered for something.
Mortifications can certainly be offered as acts of reparation to express sorrow for our sins or the sins of others. We can also offer them asking for all the needs we see around us.
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