We again find ourselves in Lent, a time for penance, prayer, and fasting. It is a time that we seek to grow closer to Christ by detaching ourselves from the materials of this world, our passions, and our desires. It is a time that we are called to step out of our comfort zone and into a time of sacrificial love. We are being called to be more like Christ by each of us remembering that our time in this world is limited and that by carrying our cross and loving as Christ did, we will be able to enjoy the reward of eternal life.
Having a better understanding of what true Christian mortification is can help us to live the Lenten season in a way that truly brings us closer to our Lord. Mortification develops from a positive motive that follows two fundamental reasons; self-control and self-improvement. As Pablo Marti states in The Beauty of the Saints and Christian Mortification, “Christianity does not seek pain for pain’s sake.” No one truly wants to suffer physical or emotional pain, but pain can be a result or a part of great offerings, sacrifice, acts of bravery, and selfless love.
As humans, we possess a biological level, our natural instinct and desires. However, outside of our biological level, we also hold a physiological and spiritual level. We are one body and soul. So while we may have a natural desire for something, our will and morals are what guide us to decide whether we will act upon a desire or choose not to. In other words, each one of these levels must act so in a way that harmoniously integrates each other so that our body and soul may act as one. To do this we must constantly seek to grow in formation and our conscience so we may have the wisdom that will guide us to use our will to help us make the right choice. Pablo Marti describes it beautifully, “ I need to educate my intelligence and strengthen my will; I need to mortify myself.” When we properly form our conscience, we allow our will to be stronger, therefore we are more prepared not just to make the right choices, but to see our weaknesses and have the desire to be better.
“Mortification is the way to achieve self-control or mastery over the body, and it can be described as the voluntary denial of an appetite, or the voluntary affirmation of something I don’t feel attracted to.” Perhaps we want to eat a slice of chocolate cake, but maybe your doctor just told you to cut out some sugar to prevent becoming diabetic. The desire for the cake it there, but our will is what allows us to make the decision to eat the cake or not. You choose not to eat the slice because you don’t want to become diabetic. For the sake of not developing a life-altering disease, you give up the cake. Corporal mortification, mortification of the body, is a free act that is a result of our free will acting upon our intellect which is counteracting our desire and passion.
We often do not realize how much we mortify our bodies for our ordinary work, families, friends, and community. Those with a professional job outside the home offer their body up for the laborious deeds of their profession to provide for their family or themselves. A mother offers her body up for each child she bears and births. A friend offers her time and strength to help another friend move out of their apartment. Each day, in some of the smallest and biggest ways, we live a life of corporal mortification, and we don’t often realize it. Regardless of the profession or stage of life, we each offer our bodies, voluntarily, up in some way for others, and sometimes it’s done subconsciously.
Now corporal mortification makes sense, it’s a type of mortification that is given for relationships, professional work, sports, education, and survival. When looked at in a human, or biological level, it makes perfect sense. But what about the spiritual level? What about the mortification that is needed for our spiritual relationship with God? Corporal mortification can be seen as a training program. Marti explains it as, “ a type of exercise or training to control the body in order to serve God and others better.” In other words, to truly have an authentically selfless relationship with God, we must be ready to offer up everything, even our physical self. The only way we can really appreciate spiritual goods is by being able to willingly give up physical goods.
Everything we have, everything on this Earth, comes from God. even the technology and materials we possess come from God. The things invented by man exist because God made man capable of inventing them. Everything we do and have comes from God, and most importantly we come from God. When we offer up Earthly possessions as a means of mortification to our Lord, we are giving back what already belongs to him. God could take what is rightfully his, but he is a loving God who also wants to be loved, one who wants us to show him how much we love and think about him. It is more meaningful for someone to return something they borrowed with sincere gratitude and affection than to have something returned coldly and ungratefully. The same applies to us when we offer God the things that already belong to him. We are showing our affection by one, returning his property responsibly, and two, showing gratitude for being given it in the first place. Now, what does this have to do with mortification? Mortification is how we control ourselves, our mind, and our body, in order to do something that is good for someone else. We can see it as gifting to someone with the intent of that gift helping them. In our relationship with God, we offer up a gift, a small act of sacrifice to help ourselves not just grow in virtue, but to also show God how much we are willing to give of ourselves to him. We are gifting ourselves to God, in a way that requires genuine sacrifice and detachment from ourselves. It is the gift of love that we are offering up to our Lord.
Our motive for mortification should be rooted in love. Marti says, “The ideal of loving God above all things and others as oneself does not come about by itself and requires personal involvement, struggle, and serious effort.” We have to recognize our weaknesses and faults as humans. We still have tendencies and desires that can lead us astray. We are prone to doing things that satisfy our passions and desires when we are led by our impulses and don’t use our self-control and willpower to restrain ourselves. These disorders can enslave us and are things that take away our peace and joy, and interfere with our communion with God. Look at the difference between a couple who takes the time to put away their phones to have a conversation versus a couple who sits on their phone and doesn’t listen to each other. One is a genuine love that is selfless while the other is blind, distracted, and enslaved because of a small device. The same goes for our relationship with God with our desires, selfish inclinations, bad habits, addictions, and comfort. All of these become a barrier that we allow to exist and as a result, distance exists between us and God. The good thing is we can eliminate or significantly reduce those barriers through mortification.
Mortification can be achieved through the practice of virtues, which require one to detach themselves from their personal wants and desires. Virtues push us to get out of our comfort zone and drive us to act in ways that bring good to others. Virtues are rooted in charity, which is love, and genuine love is selfless. There are countless ways we can practice mortification so that we may grow closer to God. During lent, fasting, penance, and abstaining are the most practiced within the Church. But there are so many more ways we can offer things up to God that are a part of our ordinary lives. A moment of anger or frustration with a child or co-worker can be offered up by seeking to be positive and cheerful versus angry and temperamental. Offering up the energy to fold through a pile of laundry at the end of the day instead of leaving it for tomorrow. Offering up your plans for the weekend being changed because someone got sick and showing patience and flexibility. Regardless of the task, situation, or challenge, we can always offer the struggle we face with those things to God and seek to apply virtue where human weakness tempts us. It is not just in those moments that we sanctify ourselves and grow stronger, but we allow our challenges and struggles to be offerings that are placed at Christ's feet. They are a part of the cross we are asked to carry so that we may be like Christ. Those struggles are moments when God asks us, “Will you let this break you, or will you overcome it for me?”
Now, the greatest acts of mortification are those that are done for the sake of another. One of the commandments is to love our neighbor as ourselves and do unto them as we would like done unto us. God is calling us to love one another, and when we seek to offer something up for another person, we are showing God such a deep love because we are loving another one of his children. How many times did Christ teach that what we do to another we also do to him? Christ lives within each and every one of us. We are each made in the image and likeness of God and for that alone we must show the utmost respect and love to each of God's children. This is when it gets hard. It is easy to show love to those we like, it is extremely hard to show love to those we dislike or who hurt us. But again, we are asked to still love and show love to them. Did Christ not show love to his own persecutors? Imagine being crucified and enduring such suffering but you are still able to love the same man that is taking your life away. That is hard to imagine, but it is exactly what we are called to do. While there are those who suffer at the hands of others in such a horrific way, there are so many of us that the worst is just a matter of not seeing eye to eye with another. Perhaps a person just rubs you the wrong way. But offering that struggle in a relationship you may have with someone is such a big act of mortification. It is such a large offering of love. Being able to say, “Lord, this person drives me crazy, but I will treat them with respect because they are your son or daughter, and I know you must see good in them.” Those acts of mortification can be some of the biggest ways we show God our love because it is in those moments we completely step outside our comfort zone to interact with someone who can trigger every button and yet we choose to control those impulsive feelings to show love, respect, and charity to another one of Gods children. That is love, and not just to others, but also to God. It is the effort and the sacrifice of our emotions that shows God how much we love him by the action we take in respecting and caring for another of his creations.
Something we must always remember is God does not ask us to suffer in a way that we are not capable of enduring. He does not ask us to face challenges we cannot overcome. But he is asking us to try and to try for his sake. He is asking us to put effort into our relationship with him to know him better and to gain our salvation. Nothing gained is ever easy. A price cannot be won without at least trying to win it. How can we obtain our entrance into Heaven if we do not even try to earn it? As St. Josemaria said in The Forge, “To be holy isn’t easy, but it isn’t difficult either. To be holy is to be a good Christian, to resemble Christ. The more closely a person resembles Christ, the more Christian he is, the more he belongs to Christ, the holier he is.”
That is all that God asks us to do, to be like Christ. To try and earn our place in Heaven so that we may be with him for all eternity because all he wants is to share in an everlasting communion with each of us. But he wants us to want it too. The only way we can have it is if we show him we care, by showing our love for him through our actions, through our life here on Earth, and through the love we show to his other children. By making our life on this Earth one that is a constant offering of ourselves, of our bodies, that shows love in the most selfless ways possible to others and to God. That is the key, that is the reason for which we live, to earn our eternal reward and to return to God his greatest creations; ourselves.
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