To commemorate this 400th anniversary year for the Congregation of the Mission, Fr. Ray Van Dorpe, C.M., offers insite into the Vincentian Vows and Virtues in this regular series: What Makes a Vincentian?
The virtue of mortification is one that most Catholics and probably many Christians are familiar with. Every year during Lent people might ask one another, “What are you giving up for Lent.” or “What are you doing for Lent”? Both of these questions point to the virtue of mortification.
The 21st century has given us the technology and other resources to satisfy almost all of our physical and emotional desires. The modern person is flooded with advertisements that promise pleasure and fulfillment of all five of our human senses. The prevalent secular culture would tell us this is good, and that we should indulge our senses as much as we can afford to do so.
But the Christian disciple knows better. St. Paul put it well when he told the Corinthians, “Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is lawful for me, but I will not let myself be dominated by anything.” He understood well the problem of overindulgence and the harm that it can bring – physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Last summer we watched the Olympic games in Paris and heard many stories of athletes who choose to make great sacrifices to achieve greatness in their chosen sports. The Christian disciple chooses to make sacrifices to achieve a life that opens one’s heart, mind, and body to living a life for others.
St. Vincent understood this well, so he urged his confreres to practice mortification as a way to subject one’s passions to reason. “Each one, therefore, should be most conscientious in accepting the overruling of his personal wishes and opinion, and in disciplining the gratification of each of his senses.” (Common Rules II,8) The goal of this virtue is always positive. Mortification is always practiced in order to achieve something good. We give up good things, not because we think they are bad, but because we want something better. We make choices every day, and the virtue of mortification moves us to be mindful of the choices we make, to see the more far-reaching consequences of our daily actions.
In application, a Vincentian may practice mortification in three ways. The first is to recognize his own spiritual and apostolic goals and then to direct his limited resources into achieving them. The second way is by intentionally sacrificing some good things in order to obtain other better things, both for himself but primarily for others. And finally, the Vincentian learns to renounce (let go) of habits, practices, and even possessions that create a strain on his spiritual and apostolic life.
The need to embrace the virtue of mortification lies in the fact that Jesus made it a necessary condition for discipleship. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,* take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt 16:24) It seems that in our materialistic and self-satisfying world, this virtue is needed now more than ever.