Chumly Responds...
Well, after my little lecture to Chumly about Lent the other day, it turns out some of it made sense to him. So he responded with some thoughts of his own. So again, if you've got a few minutes before starting your work day, or maybe a few minutes to take a break during the day, perhaps Chumly's thoughts will help you re-focus your Lenten resolutions...
You know, old chap, I think what you're saying makes some sense. All right, so it's not crisp and clean like something old C.S. Lewis might have written, but it got me thinking nonetheless.
Let's take your warning about the "old man" and how we've got to make sure that our Lenten sacrifices don't just puff up our poor old souls even worse than they probably already are. Your point is well-taken. But, as you know, that doesn't mean we don't make a bit of a sacrifice, right? Right. So with that in mind, I was thinking about how that Lenten sacrifice might help us squeeze out a bit of that "old man."
But first, I want to get back to why we want to squeeze out that "old man" to begin with. It's got to do with getting closer to Our Lord, doesn't it. In fact, to put a bit of a formal twist on it, it's about union with God. You know, that stuff you find in spiritual writings by John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila and Thomas a Kempis and that lot. And let's face it, that puffy soul and mind you talked about, well, they're egoistic tendencies - again putting it a bit more formally. And it's those tendencies that weaken our will and cause it to fail repeatedly.
So that means that our sacrifices, for example our mortifications, when done in the right spirit - for the love of Christ - well, they'll help strengthen our will. Isn't that right? So if I decide something like I'm not going to eat meat except on Sundays, or I'm not going to eat between meals - just to give some simple and not so difficult examples - I'm making a resolution to renounce something. And by renouncing something that's perfectly legitimate for me to do or want to do, I'm strengthening my will.
But there's more to it, isnt' there? It's not just our mortifications that will make the big difference. After all, the "old man" can just take those mortifications and twist them into a kind of pride. See, I've given up meat, or reduced my food intake. I'm a strong one now, aren't I?
No, we can't have that. That's just puffing myself up with pride. We've really got to totally renounce ourselves in favor of Our Lord. Self-renunciation goes far beyond our mortifications. Let's face it. We all know how we can be mortified and very austere, yet full of self.
So this self-renunciation starts when we renounce mortal sin, which casts charity from our soul. But it's far more than that. We've got to renounce everything that even hinders love, for example, deliberate venial sins and imperfections, and undisciplined desires.
That renunciation winds up being a kind of war against self. Yes, that's it. We're waging war against self-love. And it's really self-love that crowds Our Lord out, isn't it? If we love ourselves, if self-love is what fills us up - puffs us up as you say - then we don't have the time or the inclination to really love Our Lord. But our renunciation starts to crowd out our self-love and makes room for Christ.
When we give in to those venial sins, imperfections and undisciplined desires, we're basically feeding our self-love. So through our renunciation of self, we crowd out self-love; we starve it of its food. It's the opposite of asserting self, of putting self forward, of making self the center of all things.
And you know what, old chap? It's got everything to do with Lent because, when you think about it, that's the cross that most of us need to bear - the renunciation of self. And it's a daily cross we can take up each morning and carry with us throughout the day, in all our work, in our commute to and from work, in the precious moments we spend with our families.
You know, old chap, I think what you're saying makes some sense. All right, so it's not crisp and clean like something old C.S. Lewis might have written, but it got me thinking nonetheless.
Let's take your warning about the "old man" and how we've got to make sure that our Lenten sacrifices don't just puff up our poor old souls even worse than they probably already are. Your point is well-taken. But, as you know, that doesn't mean we don't make a bit of a sacrifice, right? Right. So with that in mind, I was thinking about how that Lenten sacrifice might help us squeeze out a bit of that "old man."
But first, I want to get back to why we want to squeeze out that "old man" to begin with. It's got to do with getting closer to Our Lord, doesn't it. In fact, to put a bit of a formal twist on it, it's about union with God. You know, that stuff you find in spiritual writings by John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila and Thomas a Kempis and that lot. And let's face it, that puffy soul and mind you talked about, well, they're egoistic tendencies - again putting it a bit more formally. And it's those tendencies that weaken our will and cause it to fail repeatedly.
So that means that our sacrifices, for example our mortifications, when done in the right spirit - for the love of Christ - well, they'll help strengthen our will. Isn't that right? So if I decide something like I'm not going to eat meat except on Sundays, or I'm not going to eat between meals - just to give some simple and not so difficult examples - I'm making a resolution to renounce something. And by renouncing something that's perfectly legitimate for me to do or want to do, I'm strengthening my will.
But there's more to it, isnt' there? It's not just our mortifications that will make the big difference. After all, the "old man" can just take those mortifications and twist them into a kind of pride. See, I've given up meat, or reduced my food intake. I'm a strong one now, aren't I?
No, we can't have that. That's just puffing myself up with pride. We've really got to totally renounce ourselves in favor of Our Lord. Self-renunciation goes far beyond our mortifications. Let's face it. We all know how we can be mortified and very austere, yet full of self.
So this self-renunciation starts when we renounce mortal sin, which casts charity from our soul. But it's far more than that. We've got to renounce everything that even hinders love, for example, deliberate venial sins and imperfections, and undisciplined desires.
That renunciation winds up being a kind of war against self. Yes, that's it. We're waging war against self-love. And it's really self-love that crowds Our Lord out, isn't it? If we love ourselves, if self-love is what fills us up - puffs us up as you say - then we don't have the time or the inclination to really love Our Lord. But our renunciation starts to crowd out our self-love and makes room for Christ.
When we give in to those venial sins, imperfections and undisciplined desires, we're basically feeding our self-love. So through our renunciation of self, we crowd out self-love; we starve it of its food. It's the opposite of asserting self, of putting self forward, of making self the center of all things.
And you know what, old chap? It's got everything to do with Lent because, when you think about it, that's the cross that most of us need to bear - the renunciation of self. And it's a daily cross we can take up each morning and carry with us throughout the day, in all our work, in our commute to and from work, in the precious moments we spend with our families.
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