Editorial
I found this absolutely moving. I think there is much wisdom to be learned from the Saints as well as the Popes. Please share what you think, I love the articles and meditations the Magnificat prints every month! To really think over the past two thousand years there have been Saints and wonderful people that are truly devoted to the faith… it’s to be reflected upon with great care.
Editorial
Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, wrote this: “Love is nourished only by sacrifices… If anyone is completely dedicated to loving, one must expect to be sacrificed unreservedly. I have no other means of proving my love for you, O Lord, other than not allowing one little sacrifice to escape, not one look, one word, profiting by all the smallest things, and doing them through love… In suffering and combat on can enjoy a moment of happiness that surpasses all the joys of this earth.”
Now come on! Isn’t this just pious exaggeration? A moment of happiness, “that surpasses all the joys of this earth”? Can this really be?
The majority opinion
Well, Therese is not the only saint of the month who held such a conviction. Look at this lineup of heavenly elect who agree with the Little Flower’s assessment Saint Francis of Assisi wrote, “All those who are not living in penance, who serve the world with their bodies, the desires of the flesh, are deceived by the devil whose children they are and whose works they do.” Saint Teresa of Avila observed I know people who along the road of love solely, as they should, in order to serve Christ crucified, and not only do they neither ask for consolations nor desire them, but they beg him not to give them to them in this life.” The martyr Saint Ignatius of Antioch counseled, “He who wishes to have things, collects treasures ‘for himself’; he who has a rich being renounces this ‘self’ and thinks about his being in God. God is the treasure. If God is our treasure, then we must be dominated by the thought that God’s endless wealth is found in his self-giving and self-emptying.” And another martyr, Saint Isaac Jogues, confessed, “although I am very miserable, and have so misused the graces our Lord has done me in this country, I do not despair, as he takes care to render me better by giving me new occasions to die to self, and unite myself inseparably to him.”
Just to name a few.
Who likes boring?
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, explains the logic of what can otherwise seem so contradictory: “Fulfillment does not lie in comfort, ease, and following one’s inclinations, but precisely in allowing demands to be made upon you, in taking the harder path. Everything else turns out somehow boring, anyway. Only the person who recognizes and ideal he must satisfy, who in taking, not on the path of comfort, that we become rich, but only in giving.”
The imperative for such self-giving is not something imposed on us from outside. Rather, it is an obedience to an original truth inscribed in our very being. What we need to be complete cannot be found inside us. It is only when we go out of ourselves that the fulfillment we so craved becomes possible. This is not a question of being “ heroic” but rather of being practical. Self- donation simply remains the most expedient way to effect happiness. Fr “whenever one person does something good for another their God is especially near” (Pope Benedict XVI). Opting for sacrificial self-giving, then, is a simple matter of logic-a no-brainer.
The genius of self-sacrifice
Self-sacrifice is ingenious in the way I saves us from becoming closed in on ourselves. It is by giving of our-selves that we complete ourselves. “Human existence is a consuming of oneself ‘for’ something. This is the human being’s greatness. Happiness comes through sacrifice. And the more one accepts this, the more one experiences a greater completeness already in this world.” (Monsignor Luigi Giussani). The Holy Father sums it all up: “When I abandon myself, let go of myself, then I see, yes, life is right at last, because otherwise I am far too narrow for myself. When I go outside, then it truly begins; then life attains its greatness.”
Peter John Camron, O.P.
Editorial
Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, wrote this: “Love is nourished only by sacrifices… If anyone is completely dedicated to loving, one must expect to be sacrificed unreservedly. I have no other means of proving my love for you, O Lord, other than not allowing one little sacrifice to escape, not one look, one word, profiting by all the smallest things, and doing them through love… In suffering and combat on can enjoy a moment of happiness that surpasses all the joys of this earth.”
Now come on! Isn’t this just pious exaggeration? A moment of happiness, “that surpasses all the joys of this earth”? Can this really be?
The majority opinion
Well, Therese is not the only saint of the month who held such a conviction. Look at this lineup of heavenly elect who agree with the Little Flower’s assessment Saint Francis of Assisi wrote, “All those who are not living in penance, who serve the world with their bodies, the desires of the flesh, are deceived by the devil whose children they are and whose works they do.” Saint Teresa of Avila observed I know people who along the road of love solely, as they should, in order to serve Christ crucified, and not only do they neither ask for consolations nor desire them, but they beg him not to give them to them in this life.” The martyr Saint Ignatius of Antioch counseled, “He who wishes to have things, collects treasures ‘for himself’; he who has a rich being renounces this ‘self’ and thinks about his being in God. God is the treasure. If God is our treasure, then we must be dominated by the thought that God’s endless wealth is found in his self-giving and self-emptying.” And another martyr, Saint Isaac Jogues, confessed, “although I am very miserable, and have so misused the graces our Lord has done me in this country, I do not despair, as he takes care to render me better by giving me new occasions to die to self, and unite myself inseparably to him.”
Just to name a few.
Who likes boring?
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, explains the logic of what can otherwise seem so contradictory: “Fulfillment does not lie in comfort, ease, and following one’s inclinations, but precisely in allowing demands to be made upon you, in taking the harder path. Everything else turns out somehow boring, anyway. Only the person who recognizes and ideal he must satisfy, who in taking, not on the path of comfort, that we become rich, but only in giving.”
The imperative for such self-giving is not something imposed on us from outside. Rather, it is an obedience to an original truth inscribed in our very being. What we need to be complete cannot be found inside us. It is only when we go out of ourselves that the fulfillment we so craved becomes possible. This is not a question of being “ heroic” but rather of being practical. Self- donation simply remains the most expedient way to effect happiness. Fr “whenever one person does something good for another their God is especially near” (Pope Benedict XVI). Opting for sacrificial self-giving, then, is a simple matter of logic-a no-brainer.
The genius of self-sacrifice
Self-sacrifice is ingenious in the way I saves us from becoming closed in on ourselves. It is by giving of our-selves that we complete ourselves. “Human existence is a consuming of oneself ‘for’ something. This is the human being’s greatness. Happiness comes through sacrifice. And the more one accepts this, the more one experiences a greater completeness already in this world.” (Monsignor Luigi Giussani). The Holy Father sums it all up: “When I abandon myself, let go of myself, then I see, yes, life is right at last, because otherwise I am far too narrow for myself. When I go outside, then it truly begins; then life attains its greatness.”
Peter John Camron, O.P.