Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Detachment amid plenty

WE cannot overemphasize the strategic relevance of this
virtue. With all the glut of material and temporal things now on us,
we need to be more conscious and adept in living and developing this
virtue of detachment.

            I don’t think we can afford to be casual about this
concern anymore. The worldly things are now so attractive, so tempting
and so riveting that if we are not careful, there’s no way but be
swept away by its rampaging worldly laws and impulses.

            In fact, at one time, Christ compares the great difficulty
involved in resisting the allure of worldly things in a very graphic
way: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Mk 10,25)

            This virtue has the primary purpose of emptying our mind
and heart of anything that can compete or, worse, replace the love for
God and for others which is proper to all of us.

            It’s not about running away from worldly things, much
less, of hating the goods of the earth and our temporal affairs, but
of knowing how to handle them, so as not to compromise the fundamental
law of love that should rule us.

            To repeat, it is not just a matter of emptying ourselves
but rather of filling ourselves with what is proper to us. In short,
we practice detachment to acquire and enhance the attachment right for
us as God’s image and likeness and as God’s children.

            Christ many times praised this particular virtue,
referring to it in one of the beatitudes as being “poor in spirit.”
Also, in that episode where a rich young man asked Christ how he could
enter heaven, the answer was, after following the commandments which
the young man said he was doing, to sell all he had, and to give to
the poor and to come, follow Christ. (cfr Mk 10,21)

            It’s quite clear that a requirement for entering heaven is
detachment from earthly things. This should be clear to all of us, and
should guide us in the way we use the things of the world. These
things should lead us to God and to others, not isolate us, building
up our own world and destiny.

            Christ himself lived detachment to the hilt. He was born
in a manger when, as God, he could have chosen to be born in a palace.
He dressed and lived very simply, with austerity very apparent in him,
but without degrading his human and divine dignity. He shunned worldly
honor and glory. When some people wanted to make him king and to carry
him on their shoulders, he managed to slip away.

            This is not to mention that great hymn of detachment that
St. Paul applied on him: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is
yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And
being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2,5-8)

            Detachment from earthly things, including worldly honors,
poverty and self-emptying have all the conditions for us, like Christ,
to obey God’s will, which in the end is what loving that is proper to
us is all about.

            We need to do everything so that this attitude of
detachment and poverty is very much ingrained in our
systems—intellectual, emotional and psychological, physical, social
and most importantly, spiritual and moral.

            We have to constantly check on ourselves, our thoughts,
reactions, motives, etc., to see if indeed we are living detachment at
every moment of our life. We need to rectify our intentions very
often. We should shun from creating needs, practice moderation and
restraint in the use of things, be patient and cheerful when even the
necessary things are lacking in a given moment.

            We should nip any temptation against detachment in the
bud, strengthening our conviction that by living Christian poverty we
are living properly. Even for practical purposes, detachment already
gives us a lot of advantages.

            It gives us flexibility, versatility and adaptability to
any condition in life. St. Paul expressed this when he said: “I know
both how to be brought low and I know how to abound...both to be full,
and to be hungry, both to abound, and to suffer need.” (Phil 4,12)

            Detachment and poverty also facilitate the achievement of
justice and equality proper to us in our earthly life.

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