Like any decent treatment of God's life on earth the book is so rich in insight and so critical to proper understanding of ourselves that I can't really do it justice in this blog. You will be well served to first read the gospels themselves, then get this book yourself (and the other two I mentioned). I'm now keeping a journal to help me keep track of passages I'd like to blog about, and every few pages I read of this book, I add another entry to my journal! Since I've already read the first 150 pages I have much to write about already.
One of the most striking passages is early on, in Guardini's treatment of Christ's temptation in the desert. I will quote extensively from Guardini's description of the effects of fasting (Jesus fasted for 40 days before his temptation):
At first only the lack of nourishment is felt; then, according to the strength and purity of the individual nature, the desire for food vanishes, not to return for several days. When the body receives no nourishment from without, it lives on its own substance; however, as soon as this self-calorification begins to attack the vital organs, a wild, elementary hunger is aroused, and life itself is threatened. Such was the hunger of Jesus in the wild.
Simultaneously, another, a psychic process takes place: the body becomes more supple, the spirit freer. Everything seems to grow lighter, detached. The burden of gravity itself grows less perceptible. The limits of reality begin to withdraw; the field of the possible to widen as the spirit takes things in hand. The enlightened conscience registers with greater sensitivity and power, and the will becomes increasingly decisive. The protective mechanisms of human nature which shield man from the hidden, threatening realms of existence beneath, above, and beyond him begin to fall away. The soul stands stripped, open to all forces. Consciousness of spiritual power increases, and the danger of overstepping the set limits of human existence, of confusing its dignity and its possibilities, grows acute: danger of presumption and magic, general vertigo of the spirit. When a deeply religious person undergoes these processes his soul can become involved in crises of extreme gravity and danger.
In just such a moment came the temptation by him who recognized in Jesus his greatest enemy.
(p 33-34, emphasis added)
This passage is about extensive fasting over several weeks but a shadow of such effects can be felt in ordinary fasting, even in the minor fast prescribed by the Church on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. That is the purpose of these minor fasts: to strengthen our will and align ourselves more closely with Christ.
The passage struck me especially because ascetic practice has diminished considerably in the Church, especially in America, with devastating consequences. The purpose of ascetic practice is to strengthen the will to enable it to rule the body with reason and moderation. It is especially important for those in the consecrated life to give them the strength to live their life of continence and total devotion to Christ and the Father's Will.
The fascinating book "After Asceticism: Sex, Prayer and Deviant Priests" makes the case that is the decline in ascetic discipline and the life of prayer, with the attendant rise in the therapeutic mindset, that led to the shocking violations of the Faith uncovered in recent years; with more revelations almost certain to come.
Ascetic discipline and the life of prayer lead to a life of friendship with God and a proper understanding of your place in the world; psychology and therapy lead to a life of egoism and focus on the self.
As for myself I have taken some (very) minor steps in this direction, with an eye to strengthening my own will. Soda and chocolate, which used to be major parts of my life, are so no longer. This is not the major and extensive fasting and ascetic discipline practiced by, say, John the Baptist, but it has been a good step for me.
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