By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
“Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.”
The suffering of physical privation in our Lent fasting and other means of self-denial has the purpose of securing for ourselves higher spiritual goods. The grace of inner gladness, that of the spirit which endures beyond the limits of the flesh, is one of these.
“In that time Jesus said to His disciples: And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast” (Matt. 6:16).
Christ does not oppose the laws of religious observance. As in other circumstances recounted in the Scriptures, here again that is the case. He came “not to abolish,” He said, but rather “to fulfill” the law. So, we are urged to follow the teachings while avoiding the hypocrisy of those teachers of the law who invert the purpose of the law. As in our own day, the salvation of souls comes first, but the Pharisees of our own day are obsessed about which version of the liturgy the sheep prefer, rather than simply finding satisfaction in the fact that people want to go to Holy Mass as God commands.
St. Augustine speaks of the despising of the flesh required for investing more fully in the life of the soul. The one enduring in this world only for a time, the other for eternity.
“It is evident that by these precepts we are bidden to seek for inner gladness, lest, by running after that reward which is without, we should become conformed to the fashion of this world, and should so lose the promise of that blessing which is all the truer and more stable that it is inward, that blessing wherein God hath chosen us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. In this chapter we will principally consider the fact that vainglory finds a ground for its exercise in struggling poverty as much as in worldly distinction and display; and this development is the most dangerous, because it entices under pretense of being the serving of God.”
Using the things of this world more temperately enables us, while growing in the love of God who gives them, to lift our minds and hearts to the greater, spiritual gifts bestowed in Christ.
“He that is characterized by unbridled indulgence in luxury or in dress, or any other display, is by these very things easily shown to be a follower of worldly vanities, and deceives no one by putting on a hypocritical mask of godliness. But those professors of Christianity, who turn all eyes on themselves by an eccentric show of groveling and dirtiness, not suffered by necessity, but by their own choice, of them we must judge by their other works whether their conduct really proceeds from the desire of mortification by giving up unnecessary comfort, or is only the means of some ambition: The Lord bids us beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing, but ‘by their fruits,’ says He, ‘ye shall know them’.”
In our own day we see the inversion of those who assume the costume of poverty in public, or demand it of others, while using personal power to enable, with appointment to office, criminals and corrupt persons who grovel like courtiers. These men of power are enriching themselves, enjoying the vain show of the trappings of rule, while surrounding themselves with rapists and thieves who go unpunished. The sheep are devoured and their souls imperiled by men who should love and serve them as Christ wills but who rather conduct themselves instead like ravening wolves.
Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/fasting-denial-of-the-flesh-joy-of-the-spirit/
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