September 11

Necessity Of Interior Mortification

Preparation. - Mortification is most important, but especially that of the sou, on which we shall meditate, considering, first, how indispensable it is to our spiritual life, and secondly, which are its precious fruits. We shall then resolve to repress everything in us that is opposed to the perfect reign of grace, so “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15. 28).

I. Necessity Of Interior Mortification

Without interior mortification, says Father Balthasar Alvarez, mental prayer is an illusion or lasts but a short time. It is an illusion, because the principal aim of meditation is to reform our life and correct our defects. It lasts but a short time, for without repressing vice and calming the passions, we cannot lead a recollected life, nor constantly converse with God. If we really wish to attain the object of mental prayer and persevere in this holy exercise, we should carefully restrain our curiosity, our eagerness to speak, and combat dissipation of mind and that worldly fondness for new, pleasures and external distractions.

Without the work of self-denial not only mental prayer, but also divine love is in our soul but an empty word. It can be real only when we are determined to deny ourselves in order to obey God. The more we take away from self-love, the more also we give to divine love. Hence St. Francis Borgia says that mental prayer introduces divine charity into the heart, but it is mortification that prepares therein a place for it. Wherefore when we intend to testify our love to the Lord, does it suffice for us to tell Him so with our lips or even to confirm our words with works and austerities of our won choice? No; it behooves us also to prove it to Him by giving up every defect that ravages our interior and hinders the divine will from reigning perfectly over our own.

Without this mortification of the heart, holiness is a sham, a more or less dangerous hypocrisy, and is more or less culpable. The exterior practices are the bark of perfection; self-denial is the interior work which removes the obstacles to the action of the sap or grace, and thereby contributes to the growth and ripening of the fruits, which are the virtues. Why do so few pious souls attain solid perfection? Because, says St. Ignatius, few have the courage to conquer themselves entirely. The majority devote themselves to practicing the virtues, but without wholly rooting out the vices and the contrary propensities of their heart.

O my God, how little do I study myself to find out my defects and seriously to endeavor to correct them. Grant that I may observe my thoughts, intentions, desires, fears, resentments, and I shall then be able to discover what I must uproot from my soul, in order to make place for Thy love. Give me the love of recollection and prayer, an intense desire to love Thee without reserve, and the determination to seek Thee with uprightness from my inmost being and will.

II. Precious Fruits Of Interior Mortification

The land of exile wherein we dwell may be considered as an hospital for the spiritually sick, who strive to effect their cure. Our cure is to be wrought bot by pandering to our self-love, but by making wholesome incisions in ourselves and in bearing from others the most sensitive and painful operations. Were we to appreciate our real interest, would we not entreat our spiritual physicians to worry us, to reprove and mortify us, so that we may die to ourselves and our evil inclinations? What is there, in fact, more directly opposed to our perfection and happiness, than our vicious propensities? A wonderful help to rid ourselves of them consists in mortifications and the bearing of contradictions.

And how many occasions of merit ca we daily find therein, without fear of injuring our health or risk of becoming proud, since God is the only witness of our interior acts. If we, therefore, stifle at their very birth all these vain desires, those natural affections and that worry, curiosity and natural eagerness, those slight and frequent feelings of discontent, we shall every hour produce a multitude of meritorious acts pleasing to God.

Moreover, we shall thereby accustom ourselves to the spirit of sacrifice, the spirit of Jesus crucified. O holy crucifixion, which immolates in us the earthly and natural man, in order to produce the heavenly and divine! And thus we no longer have outside of God and His will any thoughts, desires, affections and intentions. In this manner there is formed between the Creator and His creature a conformity of principles and tendencies leading to the most sublime perfection. Such was the life of the saints, whom the Church honors on our altars.

Let us labor without ceasing to resemble them, and for this purpose let us, first, mortify our self-conceit and presumption, by repressing our desires of winning the esteem of others or of putting ourselves forward; secondly, let us combat our inconstancy, which induces us to neglect our pious exercises on account of tediousness, disgust and dryness; and thirdly, let us obey divine grace notwithstanding the repugnance of our self-will. At this cost we shall establish on a solid foundation the edifice of our sanctification, and nothing in this world will be able to shake it.

O my God, through the merits of Jesus and Mary, accustom me to a life of self-denial, without which there is no real holiness, just as there is no harvest without cultivation. Inspire me with the most earnest desire for my spiritual cure, and a noble ardor to enrich myself with merits, the least of which is worth more than the universe. Unite me continually to Thee by detaching me from myself and causing me to give up all self-love.