September 10

On Mortification In General

Preparation. - After considering the various diseases of the soul, let us see by what means we may heal them; wherefore we shall meditate on the importance, first, of exterior, and secondly, of interior mortification. We shall then resolve henceforth to regulate our senses by temperance and modesty, and our passions by self-denial and habitual prayer. “They that are Christ’s, have crucified their flesh with its vices and lusts” (Gal. 5. 24).

I. Importance Of Exterior Mortification

When the body is not mortified, says St. Alphonsus, it easily revolts against the soul and hinders her spiritual progress. On the contrary, there is no better means of subjecting the flesh to the spirit than the practice of penance and mortification. “If you hear some one making little account of exterior mortification,” says St. John of the Cross, “do not believe him, were he even to perform miracles.” Has not interior mortification been practiced by all the saints, and has not the Spirit of God inspired them to do so?

It not only diminishes in us the fire of lust, but it marvelously helps us to expiate our sins. After receiving the forgiveness of our sins through the sacramental absolution, there usually remains a temporal debt to be paid to the divine justice. It must be paid either in this life or in the next. Do we wish to put this off till the next life, when we shall have to appease an inflexible justice, which will require, without increase of merit for us, that we pay our debt to the last farthing, even for a glance, for a single idle word. On the contrary, if by means of austerities, temperance and modesty we endeavor to settle here below with the heavenly Father’s mercy, He will be satisfied with lighter pains, and will even render these meritorious for life eternal. Hence how many advantages can the mortification of our body and our senses confer on us in this life, and still greater ones in the next.

Let us practice it, first, by embracing labor, hardship, infirmities, sufferings and privations; and secondly, by denying even lawful satisfaction to our sight, speech and appetite. St. Philip Neri could not help blaming some of his disciples for eating between meals; he said to one of them, who used to do it very often: “If you do not correct this defect, you will never become a spiritual man.” In fact, the life of the senses is opposed to the interior, and the gratifications afforded to our body are but so many wounds inflicted on our soul.

O my God, I repent of having so often neglected to watch over my eyes, to mortify my taste, my tongue and my sensuality. Enable me to bear, for Thy sake, hunger, thirst, heat, cold and the inclemencies of the weather; and to shun all delicacies in food, in clothing, in sitting and lying down, so that I may thereby belong more and more to Thy adorable Son, Jesus crucified. “They that are Christ’s, have crucified their flesh.”

II. Importance Of Interior Mortification

According to St. Paul, those who belong to Jesus, mortify not only their flesh, but also its vices and lusts, that is, all our perverse inclinations which hinder our perfect union with the supreme Good. If there are among Christians so few spiritual persons, and among these so few saints, the reason is to be found in the want of self-denial. To sanctify ourselves it behooves us, says the Imitation, to mortify all our earthly desires and to attach ourselves to God from our inmost heart. “As for ourselves,” it goes on to say, “we are too much taken up with our passions, with transitory things. We seldom entirely overcome a vice, and we are wanting in energy to go forward without ceasing. If we were each year to uproot only one defect, we should soon be perfect.”

And whither would this perfection lead us? To a truly angelic life. By mortifying in us that which wounds reason, grace and holiness, we obey the principles of faith, and we live by love as the heavenly spirits do; like them, we fly to God without hindrance, since nothing here below keeps us back. Such is, in the saints, the secret of their clear lights, sublime flights, ecstasies and raptures!

But, alas! how far we are from such dispositions! We scarcely ever entirely deny ourselves, our notions, our will, or our inclinations. We are satisfied with mortifying ourselves superficially, and never lay the axe to the root of the tree, to self-love in its most intimate self. When the Holy Ghost asks of us a sacrifice, we argue, hesitate, and end by preferring our inclination to the divine pleasure. Our life is more earthly than heavenly, more natural and human than angelic and divine.

O my God, since Jesus daily immolates Himself on thousands of altars, and remains continually in the state of victim under the sacred species, do not let me be the slave of my tastes and caprice, but fill me with the spirit of sacrifice and the love of self-denial. Enable me to understand the importance of this latter virtue, which is wholly advantageous to me, for it is the immolation of the old man living in me with his vices, defects and all that leads to sin and eternal damnation. Self-denial prepares in me the dwelling of the new man, Jesus Christ, with His perfections, virtues and inclination to good, His merits, privileges and indefeasible rights to the heavenly inheritance. O my God, enable me to sacrifice all, to conquer myself in every thing, in order to follow Thy attractions, to belong unreservedly to Thee, and to live solely by Thy spirit. “Putting off the old man, and putting on the new” (Col. 3. 10).