235. Eighth Monday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 106 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
In order to follow Jesus we need to be detached from all things.
Todayâs liturgy recounts the story of a young man who comes up to Jesus and says to him: Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life? Jesus replies: serva mandata, keep the commandments. The young man asks: Quae? Which commandments? Our Lord lists them, and the young man, who had led a clean life, replies: All these I have observed; what do I still lack? Then Christ looks at him. What intense affection there must have been in that look! Have you ever imagined what the look of Jesus must have been like?
He would have looked on this youth with love and affection because he was striving to lead an upright life. Si vis perfectus esse, if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give the money to the poor, and come follow me. But then things start to go wrong. âI have no use for divided hearts.â But this young man was sharing his heart with money. It seemed to be a heart that couldnât be divided, but in fact⌠abiit tristis, he left Jesus Christ; he went away sad, downcast. I look on him as a failure. Here was a man with energy, endowed with all the conditions to respond, but he was a coward.
Jesus is passing by. He could be passing by your side during these days. If not, he may have already passed by, or he may pass by at some time in the future, as he passed close by me. But isnât it a shame? We seem to be capable of giving our whole heart, but then it turns out that we want to share it with ambitions which are not those of Jesus Christ.
A heart that loves earthly things in a disordered fashion is held down by a chain that keeps it from flying up to God. In contrast, what freedom and richness come with detachment! St John Chrysostom says: Nothing so heartens a person as to find himself free of cares and worries, and to have God as his all.
A truly detached soul needs only God. Everything else is just a means, an instrument for loving and serving God, and never a hindrance to sanctity. We need to be very sensitive to the demands of the virtue of detachment, even though it can be difficult, especially for us who live in the middle of the world. Our Father would point out that when it comes to sacrifice, many people give up, and turn back like cowards. God knows the poor âstuffâ of which we are made; and that is why, my children, he has provided us with all the means. He doesnât ask us for impossible things. He asks each person for something different, and gives each one all the necessary means.
Detachment: freedom to serve God better.
Detach yourself from creatures until you are stripped of them. For the devil, says Pope St Gregory, has nothing of his own in this world, and he goes into battle naked. If you are âclothedâ when you fight with him, youâll soon be pulled down to the ground, because he will have something to grab on to. But if we are interiorly detached from everything and filled with God, then the enemyâs attacks will be futile. He will find no complicity on our part. A soul belonging to God is impregnable to deceits and seductions, to things which may be good in appearance, but which are really only images of true happiness.
We seek holiness and apostolate in our ordinary work and in the duties of daily life. This involves an unwavering struggle to cut whatever needs cutting, and to detach ourselves from anything that has ceased to be a means and instead has become a hindrance. Our Father writes: The risen, glorious Christ has detached himself from everything earthly. Think about what you have to become detached from, so as to attain an inner resurrection, a rebirth to a more supernatural life.
We can never forget that although Christ was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. If only we could live with more trust in divine Providence, strong in faith, in the certainty of Godâs unfailing daily protection, how many worries and anxieties we would be spared! Then that fretfulness which, as Jesus said, is typical of pagans, of the heathen world, of people who lack a supernatural outlook on life, would disappear. Now that I am confiding to you as a friend, as a priest, as a father, I would like to remind you that in every circumstance of our lives we are, by Godâs mercy, children of our almighty Father, who is in heaven but who also dwells in the intimacy of our hearts. I would like to engrave upon your minds the conviction that since your Father well knows what you need, we have every reason to be optimistic on our journey through life, with our souls completely detached from those earthly things that seem so very necessary. God will provide. Believe me, this is the only way to be lords of creation and to avoid the pitiful slavery into which so many people fall because they forget that they are Godâs children and spend their time worrying about tomorrow or a future they may never see.
Everything pales before the beauty of the Lord. As St John Chrysostom says: No one who has fallen in love with poverty wants to become rich ⌠The followers of Christ live a contented life and rejoice in their poverty more than kings do in their crown. They have God, and thus they have everything; they lack nothing. The soul of the man who willingly makes himself poor gleams like gold, it shines like a pearl, it blooms like a rose. Would you like to see the beauty of such a soul? Would you like to know the wealth of poverty? ⌠The poor man has no treasure, but he has heaven ⌠He laughs at the royalty of gold and the like, as though they were childrenâs toys ⌠What need does anyone have of these if he has Christ?
How I wish that I were fastened only by three nails, our Father says, and had no more feeling in my flesh than the cross!
Loving the consequences of detachment.
We want to strive for complete detachment, always and in everything. We want to travel through this world with the calm and elegance of people who know how to use and to love earthly things, but without becoming caught up in them; people who donât allow any of the things of this world, even for an instant, to gain mastery over them.
We should rejoice in the blessedness of Godâs kingdom, which Christ promised to those who are poor out of love for him. But itâs not enough to want to be poor. One has to learn to be poor.
There are certain unmistakable signs of true detachment: Donât consider anything your own. Donât have anything superfluous. Donât complain when something needed is missing ⌠When you must choose, take what is poorest and least attractive. If we truly love the Christian virtue of poverty, then we will love its consequences.
Detachment is a necessary condition for following Christ closely. We practise it in accordance with our spirit, taking care of the material things that we use, such as our own personal effects, our clothing, the furniture in the house, the things we use at work, and so on. As regards our expenses we have a clear standard set for us by our Father: We are parents of a large but poor family. Thus if at times you feel the pinch of poverty, donât get dejected and donât rebel against it. But you should try to use all the upright means available to get over such a situation, because to do otherwise would be to tempt Godâs providence. And while you are so fighting, remember too the omnia in bonum!: all things, even scarcity and poverty, work together unto the good of those who love God. Get into the habit, from now on, of facing up cheerfully to little deprivations and discomforts, to cold and heat, to the lack of things you feel you canât do without, to being unable to rest as and when you would like to, to hunger, loneliness, ingratitude, misunderstanding, disgraceâŚ
Only in God is my soul at rest; from him comes my salvation. Our hope is not based on earthly things; we cannot put our hearts into anything passing. With this conviction, let us ask our Blessed Lady to help us to imitate Christ, who, though rich, became poor for us, and had nowhere to lay his head.
Let us ask her to obtain for us the grace of a true and total detachment in the middle of the world.