The pursuit of earthly detachment

“AGAIN I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” (Mt 19,24) These are words of Christ that horrified the apostles when told about the proper condition they should have to enter heaven. “Who then can be saved?” they could only reply. 

 That is when Christ clarified how it was going to be. “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible,” he said. This can only mean that the pursuit of earthly detachment is actually tied to our pursuit of holiness, of becoming more and more like God in whose image and likeness we were created. 

 We need to understand that this virtue of detachment 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 that is proper to 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 and follow Christ. (cfr Mk 10,21) 

 This virtue of detachment is a total self-giving that involves a self-emptying, so we can be filled with nothing less than God himself, and with him, we would have everything else. As St. Teresa of Avila once said: “Solo Dios basta.” (Only God suffices) 

 And our Lord himself said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) This should be the trajectory of our attitude towards life, our work and the use of material things. Any other direction would be fatal to our spiritual and moral life. 

 So, the detachment our Lord is asking of us actually does not mean that we hate our life, our parents and others, and the things of this world. Rather it is a detachment that asks of us to have rectitude of intention, that everything that we do be for the glory of God. 

 St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians said as much: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (10,31) 

 We should not be afraid to go through the required sacrifices and self-denial, since these can only lead us to the joy and peace meant for us. We need to do better than a shallow and narrow view of our earthly life, a knee-jerk reaction to things. 

 We need to give due attention to this duty of rectifying and purifying our intention, filling it with love, and expressing it with generosity and heroism even. Our problem is precisely our tendency to take this duty for granted, and so we open ourselves to the subtle forces of pride, greed, lust, envy, anger, gluttony, sloth, etc.