For those who are horrified by Christian mortification
Each year with the arrival of Lent, Catholics devote time to intensify prayer and penance are revived criticism, ridicule or misunderstanding, to the Christian practices of mortification, sometimes leading to scandal : there are those who are outraged that surprised even the modern secular world there are those who become distressed.
Problems of understanding
be no longer feels strange rejection of postmodern culture by mortification of others. At bottom, it seems enclose a good dose of hypocrisy.
If you look, from a purely worldly point of view, it's something free that also benefits the practitioner. In effect
· involve the exercise of personal freedom: nobody is forced to do so, but willingly made
· is done for spiritual reasons: lifting and personal improvement
· not hurt anyone: on the contrary, many mortifications favor to others (one is denying itself the benefit of others).
· no damage their own health: indeed, many mortifications contribute to its improvement.
· is in private practice, need not bother, no one is proud of his mortification, neither the sample nor the public does, but tries to be as unobtrusive as possible as a matter of humility, following the Master's teaching: "When you fast, do not be sad finjáis like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to see how fast people. Truly, I say they have received their reward. You, however, when thou fastest anoint your head and wash your face, to warn men not to fast, but thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly " (Mt 6.16 to 18). So
looked really should move to admiration and praise of others.
On the contrary, it is striking that in a culture that says all options tolerant personal mortification such rejection occurs, should come between good tolerability.
This scandal is at least contradictory. It occurs in a world that "blessing" for example, euthanasia, what could be considered the worst of mortification (obviously not, since it is an act of generosity, where one is offered by others) . And paradoxically, there was no one who frowns one who is sick of living (or have) the killing itself and the company to help you do this, is horrified because one person decides to suffer a little for altruistic reasons.
Sacrifice is part of the life of any person. Changing motivations and concrete practices. In fact, the culture that worships the body has its "mortification" secularized:
· piercing, body piercing and carry all types of metal hanging in various parts of the body, tongue, eyebrow, waist, breasts, etc..
· tattoos: marked the body as was formerly the slaves with inscriptions that last a lifetime gastric
· belts from eating more than the account
· Costs cosmetic surgery to raise the profile of the face
• the sporting competition requires sacrifices athletes dietary and training very hard.
· Diet exhausting to look overly skinny body that require women to present the aesthetic, and that often lead to psychiatric disorders such as anorexia or bulimia
· hours grueling gym to get a muscle "drawn" and flat tummy.
· Exhibition solar heat for hours to suffer often unbearable to wear a tan, which theoretically improves the image itself (this only whites do, ironically the people of other races trying to bleach the color of their skin)
· confinement for hours on bowling no light, no air with smoke, deafening music, at times that require hours of patient waiting ...
Could it be that it is not understood and not to offend the self-mortification, but why is it done?
In fact, what is not understood in Christian mortification is why: not done to earn money or to acquire fame, or glory, or power, or for professional or sporting success, or to have a more attractive body or for selfish reasons. Every sacrifice made by earthly motives are praised. But if they say they are spiritual motivation, things change. Puzzled ... and up unworthy.
And that same world of strict dieting seems like a horror fasting: a person to stop eating voluntarily for love of God sounds like an act obscurantist, retrograde, masochistic and overcome ... And it bothers him that there are people who practice it. In the practice of corporal mortification, or talk.
And those who are scandalized by the celibacy (there who are not married by the Kingdom of Heaven seems an affront to humanity) are the same as they do not want to marry and not be tied to anyone (why marry wonder if you can enjoy a woman / man without compromise and without children, and change to when you want, without further ado?)
Surprise some of our contemporaries to the mortification is more curious still taking into account that is not new: the Christians have mortified continuously for 2000 years of Christianity. This is not a recent invention of some Christians, but a practice two millennia of them all. Without going any further, Lent (the time of preparation for Easter which is characterized by the practice of intense mortification) comes from the very earliest centuries, has already in the second century Christians were fasting in preparation for the feast of Resurrection.
This inability to understand the cultural mortification is a limitation. It will pass, is a consequence of the prevailing fashions.
hedonistic culture is an anthropological failure, which does great harm to man. Just look at their fruits: depression, loneliness, hatred of babies, marriages decline, plague of divorces, abortions, promiscuity, glorification of pornography and prostitution, AIDS, massacres of embryos, human experimentation, attempts to "production "human beings for the supply of organs for sick people ...
Hedonism does great harm to man. It will pass, like all fashions. It is a pity the many people who destroy their lives (the only one!) Dazzled the culture of death, a life project as harmful to themselves. It takes patience because we know that after a generation comes another ... and fashions come and go.
Christians understand that those with a pose materialistic life can not understand the mortification and many other things. Even Jesus, when rebuked Peter for trying to convince him that the cross was crazy, said, "You are thinking not of God but of men" (Mt 16:23). That way is not understood. And Paul says, "the natural man can not understand the things of the spirit of God are foolishness to him" (1 Cor 3, 14). It happens that those who is saturated with materialism, think and judge all things according to these coordinates alone: \u200b\u200baccording to the old adage, as quoted by St. Paul himself: "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die" (1 Cor 15:32).
Why Christians beat themselves?
Mortification of the essence of Christianity: there is no Christianity without the cross. Thus recorded in the Scriptures and Christians lived so from the beginning.
Moreover, it was also true in the Old Testament. Indeed God sends prophets to preach repentance. Just think of Jonah and his preaching in Nineveh: "Within forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown "(Jonah 3.4). And as penance for their inhabitants moved divine mercy (Jonah 3.10).
And the messianic era, opening with John the Baptist, that "curiously" lives in the desert, feeds rudimentary way penitently dresses, etc. (Mt 3.4). And not coincidentally, is part of the divine plan. His preaching is just "do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 3.3).
And the same Messiah begins his public life, with forty days of fasting in the wilderness (Mt 4.2). Invited to carry the cross. Announces the persecution of his disciples (Lk 21.12). Sleeping outdoors in his travels (he has nowhere to lay his head: Mt 8.20). States that no one has greater love than to give his life for his friends (Jn 15:13). The same is delivered to death to save us: please note that all the sufferings endured by Christ in the Passion should be considered volunteers, not only as offering something happened against his will and can not be avoided, "why I love the Father, because I give my life to it again. No one takes it from me I give voluntarily. I have power to lay it down and power up again. " As he explains to his disciples that it was necessary that this happen (Luke 24.25-26): there was no other way.
is so necessary it is even a basic condition for being a Christian. Jesus himself points out when invited to follow: "Whoever wants to follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mt 16:24). And the disciples, who had a hard time accepting it at first, eventually understood: shortly after Pentecost when they were hit by the Sanhedrin, leave happy to have been considered worthy to suffer for Christ (Acts 5:41) and his letters are full of optimistic and joyful references to the cross. One example among many, in San Pablo: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for His Body which is the Church "(Col 1.24).
So very early Christians adopted the cross-the instrument where his God was tortured and killed, as the Christian sign of excellence. Not out of masochism, but out of pity: it is the ultimate manifestation of God's love.
And while no one looks to be, the Christian martyrs are heroes: it is considered a grace of martyrdom.
And we prepare for the biggest party (the Resurrection of Christ) with a long period of penance forty days of Lent, which commemorates the forty days of fasting of Jesus in the desert (in which, besides prayer, sacrifice and charity personal-we are commanded to do two days of fasting). And every Friday of the year are days of penance, in which through abstinence we join the redemptive passion
[1] .
And God forgives our sins in the sacrament of penance, where the divine mercy we "apply" the merits of the Passion and Death of Christ. And the purification of the "consequences" of sin is done personally by joining the cross of Jesus through repentance in its two dimensions: the main-inner change of heart, and its external manifestation-mortification-(Catechism of Church n. 1431).
In the Christian doctrine eternal salvation passes through the cross. Hence the Saviour redeemed us, and there must also pass the disciples. Santa Rosa de Lima said it in a graphical way, "without the cross there is no other ladder by which up to heaven."
Mortification has two "versions". The "passive" is generous and joyful acceptance of sorrow, pain and suffering that come unsought. The "active" are what we seek its own initiative (on forms of penance, cf. Catechism of the Church, nos. 1434-1439).
A clarification. Christians are not crazy. Nobody thinks that we feel pleasure in the pain-it hurts as anyone, but obviously with the time one gets used. Nor do we think it is a "price" we pay for our salvation.
We are moved by love. As the first commandment to love God (Mt 22.37-40), and ultimately the only, as all the other-target that could not be otherwise: we mortify by love as an expression of love and to enable us to love better.
And although it is very necessary, mortification is far from being the main Christian practice. Is a function of inner purification, and the same is not an end in itself: we purify ourselves to be more pleasing to God and prepare to be more docile the action of the Holy Spirit.
Mortification has meaning and value only in a context of love for God. Who is mortified by other reasons, for pride or vanity, to feel pure, superior, or whatever-will lose all credit for his action, which would be rendered meaningless.
And the truth is that no big deal ... We are not martyrs, and we are heroes, not victims. We believe it is the least we can do for those who have suffered so much for us.
mortification benefits
The main benefits are spiritual mortification.
been so good for the soul! Purified themselves sins and their consequences, "spiritualized" by increasing the sensitivity to the sentence, given dominion over self, away from the temptations, free from fads, immunization against consumerism and frivolity, is a school of generosity. Leads to overcome shortcomings and grow in virtue.
And the best mortification is to help us improve our character and give to others, has many consequences in human terms. It helps us work better (punctuality and order, for example, are great mortification). A better life and living charity (endure patiently inappropriate jokes, listen to heavy people, etc.. Are all examples of mortification). It even helps more enjoy the finer things in life (lack of self-denial leads to things "cloy"), in the same way as when we were kids, we liked the candy, the more we enjoyed the less eat them.
Mortification not embitter life, and diminishes us encouragement, but ends up being a source of joy. So they lived
saints and millions of Christians "common" look at the cross God's blessing.
To understand the meaning of Christian mortification is highly recommended, for example, reading the texts of the Liturgy of Lent: the prayers and readings for the Masses each of those forty days. You can find there a wealth of doctrine.
And if we remember that God only asks us what we need, we find that, paradoxically, the mortification is key to achieving happiness
In Argentina, the Episcopal Conference authorizes the withdrawal of meat replacement by abstinence from alcohol, or a charity or by a practice of piety .
