Detachment

WE have to understand this virtue very well. It’s actually part of both the human and Christian virtues of temperance and poverty. We need to consciously develop it not only in ourselves. We need to help everybody else to mature in it.

Even from the human point of view, we cannot help but live it, at least partly. This often disregarded truth can easily be seen when we realize that everyday we make choices that unavoidably involve detachment from certain things, and even from certain persons.

For example, one with some medical condition has to detach himself from certain food, good in themselves but bad to him. One who is married surely has to see to it that his heart just does not fly off getting attached randomly to any other woman.

One, who trains for some competition, has to submit to a regimen that includes a special diet and a list of restrictions. An adherence to a certain discipline marks his life.

That’s the law that governs us. It should come to us quite naturally that if only for this reason we should take the appropriate effort to cultivate this attitude. We’ve been taught about this virtue since we were kids. It’s for our own good.

In developing and living this virtue of detachment, one experiences a certain lightness of feeling, a certain purification and liberation of the senses from unnecessary and even toxic things. It fosters self-mastery.

There’s a certain focus of attention involved in it, an aiming at a specific goal. It is a sure sign that one is progressing, since growth involves not only acquiring certain elements, but also discarding things.

But for those of us who adhere to Christian faith, we know that this virtue
is even more necessary because, firstly, our Lord said so. “What does it a profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?” (Mt 16,26)

Or if you want to be more radical, hear this from our Lord: “If any man comes to me, and does not hate his father, mother, wife, and children, and brothers and sister, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14,26)

Detachment in this moral and spiritual level makes sure that our heart is directed to its ultimate goal, which is nothing less than supernatural. And this is union with God. We should not forget this very important dimension in our life. We are meant for this.

Detachment purifies our body, and preps and conforms it to our spiritual needs. If we want to meet the requirements of our spiritual nature and supernatural calling, we can not avoid having to live detachment.

Our Lord said: “My son, give me your heart.” (Prov 23,26) Besides, Jesus
himself said that the first commandment is “to love the Lord your God your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.” (Mt 22,37)

There is a certain exclusivity in this kind of love that necessarily entails detaching oneself from other things. But it is an exclusivity that gives us a universal heart, allowing us to love everything else properly, that is, in truth, in their proper order.

To attain this goal in our life, one that is spiritual and supernatural, we will always realize that a continuing process of self-denial and of detachment from the material and temporal elements of the world is necessary.

To those with the Christian view of life, this process is never considered
a loss but rather a gain, not a stunting of one’s growth but rather enhancing it. It does not make one sad but rather happy. It makes sacrifice a touchstone of love.

This is what is meant by the gospel term of circumcision of the heart.

The saints and all who try to pursue holiness look forward to every occasion to practice detachment in whatever form it comes, whether physical, economic and social, then moral, and even spiritual.

We have to outgrow the mentality that consists of thinking there can be a
time or stage in our life when we can freed from having to live detachment.