SPIRITUAL LIFE COMMITTEE
 
Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity   Monthly Reflection: December 2003  
THE MISSIONARY CENACLE VIRTUE OF SELF-DENIAL   
Bro. Joseph Dudek, S.T.  

    Our culture abounds with messages that happiness consists in gratifying every desire, in accumulating wealth and in achieving power and fame. One value that is seldom mentioned is that of asceticism or self-denial. Self-denial is praised in the pursuit of bodily health or beauty but deemed old fashioned, eccentric or quaint in the quest for God. Clearly, this was not always the case. Over the centuries, serious Christians have developed many ways of striving for spiritual perfection. For example, self-denial is related to the way of prayer as outlined by John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Saint Teresa says that we will advance in prayer at a snail's pace unless we mortify our appetite for pleasure, possession and prestige. Likewise, John of the Cross says that until we exercise mortification we will do no more than run around in circles in our striving for union with God.
 
      Scripture is full of references to lives of self-denial and humility. Jesus, John the Baptist and Saint Paul all embraced ascetical practice as a means of seeking fuller union with God. In our own desire to be Christ-like we must first and foremost follow His example. He says, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). Christian perfection may be found in love but there can be no true love without sacrifice. The practice of such sacrifice in one's daily life is the meaning of self-denial.    Father Judge speaks very clearly on the primary place that the Cenacle virtue of self-denial should have for us. In a letter to early Cenacle members in 1915 he writes:

The good that you would do demands much that is painful and repugnant to nature. Self love is crossed at every moment. Your zeal for souls causes you to practice humility and because of searching for strayed souls, self ease suffers much. If sinners have been reconciled to God it has only been, after grace, because of your self-denial; a denial that has separated you from the innocent pleasures of your family and friends and cause you much practice of the bitter virtue of mortification.        

    We must not underestimate the vital connection that Father Judge makes between self-denial and being a servant; a servant who in some measure bears the cross of Christ. This desire to exhaust self interest and deny even our own lives leads us then to a life of loving service full of apostolic zeal. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters; yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:25-26).        

     The Church too speaks in many ways about our need for mortification and self-denial. The Catechism tells us that, whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues and fidelity to prayer.   This asceticism, which involves spiritual exercises, prayer, meditation, fasting and other forms of self-denial is directed toward changing our focus from the earthly and setting it on the heavenly, the eternal.  

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:  Read Luke 14:25-35   

1. What can we learn from this passage about discipleship and self-denial?   

2. What does denying self mean for you on a practical day to day level?   

3. Identify any ascetical disciplines that you regularly practice.   

4. Reflect on your understanding of the traditional practices of prayer,
    fasting and meditation. Are these traditional practices still useful?   

5. Identify the fruits or benefits of self-denial.

    MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!  

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