A Self-Conversation
By Edwin D. Bael
“Ok, Lord”, you say, “I admit I
can’t do it by myself; I need You and Your redeeming grace. I’m such a sinner,
Lord; please forgive me of my sins: I repent of them; I will confess them properly
and do penance as directed”… “And Lord, please let me accept Your Saving
Sacrifice on the Cross and accept You as my Lord and Savior: I do”. Then,
sheepishly, you add: “Would I now be qualified for heaven, Lord, and be with
you?”
Hmmmm. Your situation is not like
the thief hanging on another cross beside Jesus and would die on the same day;
so, probably, you won’t qualify for a response like “this day thou shalt be
with me in paradise.” But it might be good to consult the bible, especially
because you are intent on living more years on this earth, even as you seek a
guarantee of heaven when you die, isn’t that so?
Your last query reminds us of two
brothers and a rich man.
You remember the brothers James and John who were
apostles of Jesus? “The Request of James
and John. - Then the
mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage,
wishing to ask him for
something. He said to her, ‘What do you wish?’ She answered
him, ‘Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other
at your left, in your kingdom.’ Jesus said in reply, ‘You
do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to
drink?’ They said to him, ‘We can.’ He replied, ‘My cup you
will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, [this] is not mine to
give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’ When the
ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers.” (Matthew
20:20-24)
First, remember when this happens,
Jesus is headed to Jerusalem, to the cross, to torture and death, to give his
life in nonviolent suffering love
as he resists the empire, the Temple, and the structures of injustice, so for
him, the cup is the cross, and he asks us: Are you going to take up the cross
and follow me? Are you willing to give your life in suffering love for
humanity? Are you willing to be baptized with the second baptism that I am
going to undergo, not in the River Jordan, but a baptism of blood on the cross?
(Father John Dear)
Are you ready and willing to take up
and drink that “cup”?
Now, let’s recall the rich man. “The Rich Man. As he was
setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, ‘Good
teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus
answered him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not kill; you shall not
commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you
shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.’ He
replied and said to him, ‘Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.’
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, ‘You are
lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you
will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ At that statement his
face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
‘How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were amazed at his
words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter
the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass
through [the] eye of [a] needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom
of God.’ They were exceedingly astonished and said among
themselves, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them
and said, ‘For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are
possible for God.’” (Mark 10:17-27)
Are you ready and willing to divest
yourself of all things, sell all your possessions, give all the proceeds to the
poor, and follow Jesus?
But before you answer, please consider
that “to follow Jesus” means to be His disciple, and He had some pretty choice
words about discipleship:
“Whoever
loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son
or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his
cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose
it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew
10:37-39)
“Then
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny
himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for
one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in
exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his
Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct. Amen,
I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’” (Matthew 16:24-28)
“Then
he said to all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and
take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is
there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? Whoever is
ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes
in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Truly I say to you, there are some standing
here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.’” (Luke
9:23-27)
“Great
crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and addressed them, ‘If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my
disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my
disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and
calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise,
after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the
onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not
have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not
first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully
oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not,
while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.’” (Luke 14:25-33)
That’s really, really tough! Why all
the drinking from the bitterest cup, renunciation, divestment, denial of self,
and the dog-like following? Isn’t the once and for all sacrifice on the cross
sufficient to redeem us? And all we need to do is humbly to accept it and
repent of our sins? But now there is this taking up of my cross? What is that? Is
this turning out to be more bureaucratic than our government offices requiring
interminable forms and documents for compliance? And mind you, it looks like it’s
not just external paper work, but no less than a power-washing of the soul (nay,
even bleaching to non-attachment) is a precondition? Can we now not sympathize
with the rich man in being required to eliminate all that we have valued and
considered important in life? And didn’t God command respect for father and
mother, and now we must hate them or at least love them less? Confusing!
Cool it. Tranquilo…
Are you whining like Jeremiah? “Jeremiah’s
Interior Crisis. You seduced me, LORD, and I let myself be seduced; you
were too strong for me, and you prevailed. All day long I am an object of
laughter; everyone mocks me.” (Jeremiah 20:7)
What really is the Lord’s point? What
does “deny” oneself mean? And how do we follow Jesus while carrying our cross?
Perhaps we can first look at this
from the perspective of the two selves. Remember, we are made in the image of
God, the Spirit of Love and Light, and momentarily manifested in a body with
its predilections. So we have our soul having mind, heart, and will
characterized and manifested by our thoughts, emotions, and actions (TEA). But
the soul straddles (a) the ‘ego-self’ that identifies itself with flesh and
blood body and material things around it and its own partiality for ego, pride,
self-love, separateness, and the spirit of darkness, and (b) the True Self that
forever remains in unity with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in love
and in light, and yet is mostly forgotten in this interregnum we call life
because of the soul’s preoccupation with the physical and the material.
Ok, we got ego-self and True Self.
Of what significance is that?
Perhaps we can hypothesize that the
Lord simply wants us to shift focus from ego-self to True Self? Because all the
above-mentioned values and specifications of our attachments to life,
relationships, possessions, power, pelf, and what have you, seem to be the summum bonum (highest good) of the ego
which really is an acronym for “edging god out” given its insistence that it is
separate and distinct from God; while the life to be found after denying
oneself and losing the (ego)self, is the Life in, with, and through God,
wherein we live, move, walk, and have
our being in Him; in other words, where we live our True Self…
That’s simplistic!
Well, whether as individuals or as a
group, our lives hinge on the balance of darkness and light within ourselves, that
is why we are encouraged to “(t)ake care,
then, that the light in (us) not become darkness.” (Luke 11:35); or to take
care that our True Self does not get overcome, clouded, or forgotten in favor
of ego-self…
Hey, what’s the point of this advice
“that the light not become darkness”?
Perhaps it’s because darkness
naturally has a stronger and longer root in us? Remember: “In the beginning, when God created the
heavens and the earth, and the
earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind
sweeping over the waters, …God said: Let there be light, and
there was light.” (Genesis1:1-3)? Darkness existed first before light. And we all
begin life in the dark warmth of mother’s womb albeit we already start reaching
for light while still there; it is only when we are born that we see the light;
the Spanish term for ‘to give birth’ is ‘dar
a la luz’, literally to give to the light.
And of course, how can we forget the
inherited conditioning for ego-self and pride from way back in Eden when Eve
and Adam succumbed to Satan’s mind games? “Did
God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the
trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle
of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else
you will die.’” But the snake said to the woman: “You
certainly will not die! God knows well that when you eat
of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and
evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and
pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took
some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was
with her, and he ate it.”
(Genesis 3:1-6)
You’re saying we, the human species,
are more conditioned to and are at home with darkness (sin) than with light
(virtue)?
That
seems to be the case. The natural
person, as St. Paul reminded the Corinthians, are still of the flesh. “While there
is jealousy and rivalry among you,
are you not of the flesh, and behaving in an ordinary human way? Whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I
belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?” (1Corinthians3:3-4) “Man, enticed by the Evil One, abused his
freedom at the very beginning of history. He succumbed to temptation and did
what was evil. He still desires the good, but his nature bears the wound of
original sin. He is now inclined to evil and subject to error: ‘Man is divided
in himself. As a result, the whole life of men, both individual and social,
shows itself to be a struggle, and a dramatic one, between good and evil, between
light and darkness.’” (CCC1707)
So,
how can we go to heaven?
We
can and should ask the only One who can help: Jesus Christ. Jesus filled to overflowing
the abysmal chasm of man’s inadequacy. “By his Passion, Christ delivered us
from Satan and from sin. He merited for us the new life in the Holy Spirit. His
grace restores what sin had damaged in us.” (CCC 1708) “By his glorious Cross, Christ has won
salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage.
‘For freedom Christ has set us free.’ In him we have communion with the ‘truth
that makes us free.’ The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle
teaches, ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.’ Already we glory
in the ‘liberty of the children of God.’” (CCC 1741)
As
a child of God, “The human person participates in the light and power of the
divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of
things established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing
himself toward his true good. He finds his perfection “in seeking and loving
what is true and good.” (CCC 1704) By
virtue of his soul and his spiritual powers of intellect and will, man is
endowed with freedom, an “outstanding manifestation of the divine image.” (CCC 1705)
“By his reason, man recognizes the voice of God which urges him ‘to do what is
good and avoid what is evil.’ Everyone is obliged to follow this law, which
makes itself heard in conscience and is fulfilled in the love of God and of
neighbor. Living a moral life bears witness to the dignity of the person.” (CCC
1706)
In
respect of this dignity, “Christ,... ‘in the very revelation of the mystery of
the Father and of his love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to
light his exalted vocation.’ It is in Christ, ‘the image of the invisible God,’
that man has been created ‘in the image and likeness’ of the Creator. It is in
Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the
first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace
of God.” (CCC 1701)
“He
who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial adoption transforms
him by giving him the ability to follow the example of Christ. It makes him
capable of acting rightly and doing good. In union with his Savior, the
disciple attains the perfection of charity which is holiness. Having matured in
grace, the moral life blossoms into eternal life in the glory of heaven.” (CCC 1709) For indeed: “‘He
destined us in love to be his sons’ and ‘to be conformed to the image of his
Son,’ through ‘the spirit of sonship.’ This plan is a ‘grace [which] was given
to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began’”. (CCC 257)
However, this grace of sonship cannot grow and bear fruit in us without our cooperation. We must choose to cleave to Him. “God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel [cf. Sir 15:14], so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him”. (CCC 1743). Possessed of his own counsel, “…man is rightly called a king who makes his own body an obedient subject and, by governing himself with suitable rigor, refuses to let his passions breed rebellion in his soul, for he exercises a kind of royal power over himself. And because he knows how to rule his own person as king, so too does he sit as its judge. He will not let himself be imprisoned by sin, or thrown headlong into wickedness. [St. Ambrose, Psal. 118:14, 30: PL 15:1476]”. (CCC 908)
And
yet man sins and continues to sin; if humble enough, though, he can and must
cooperate with God to avail of the already complete and effective supreme saving
sacrifice paid by Jesus, the Son of God. For the Lord’s plan is to save us,
only with our cooperation. “‘God created us without us: but he did not will to
save us without us.” [St.
Augustine, Sermo]. To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults. ‘If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.’ [1 John 8-9]” (CCC 1847)
As
St. Paul affirms, “‘Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.’ [Romans 5:20].
But to do its work grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts and
bestow on us ‘righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
[Romans
5:21]. Like a physician who probes the wound before treating it, God, by his
Word and by his Spirit, casts a living light on sin: Conversion requires
convincing of sin; it includes the interior judgment of conscience, and this,
being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in man’s inmost being,
becomes at the same time the start of a new grant of grace and love: ‘Receive
the Holy Spirit.’ Thus in this ‘convincing concerning sin’ we discover a double
gift: the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of
redemption. The Spirit of truth is the Consoler. [John Paul II,
DeV 31 § 2].” (CCC 1848)
This
is where admitting and repenting of our sins and living righteously are
essential to re-establishing our unity with the Lord God Almighty. It is only
when ego-self’s artificial walls of guilt, shame, unworthiness, and sense of
separation are broken down and washed away by our contrite confession acted on
by the cleansing and redeeming blood of Jesus, in His mercy and favor, that we
once more ascend above the dark clouds to True Self having At-One-Ment with the
supreme atonement of Love before time began. And in this At-One-Ment with Light,
the layers of dark illusions and delusions that ego-self has piled up through
the years simply peel off, and thus, we finally unveil and live in True Self:
united in Love and Light with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In
True Self, we can experience the ultimate paradigm shift: “Philippians 2:6-7
beautifully describes the Trinitarian relationship: ‘Jesus’ state was divine,
yet he did not cling to equality with God, but he emptied himself.’ This is how
the three persons of the Trinity relate. They all live in an eternal
self-emptying (kenosis), which allows each of them to totally let go and
give themselves to the other. When we start with the three, we know that this
God is perfect giving and perfect receiving, that the very name of Being is
communion, extravagant generosity, humble receptivity, and unhindered dialogue
between three. Then we know God as the deepest flow of Life Itself,
Relationship Itself. It is not that a Being decides to love; love is the very
nature and shape of Being. This is then the pattern of the whole universe. And
any idea of God’s ‘wrath’ or of God withholding an outflowing love is
theologically impossible. Love is the very pattern that we start with, move
with, and the goal we move toward. It is the very energy of the entire
universe, from orbiting protons and neutrons to the social and sexual life of
species, to the orbiting of planets and stars. We were indeed created in
communion, by communion, and for communion. Or as Genesis says: ‘created in the
image and likeness of God.’” (Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation on Trinity)
In
this realization that God is Life Itself, the Being whose very nature and shape
is Love, and Who is Relationship Itself who includes and subsumes you as
True Self having been created in communion, by communion, and for communion,
you can better understand the Lord’s discourse on the greatest commandment: “‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the
greatest?’ He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the
greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love
your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two
commandments.’” (Matthew 22:36-40) In this statement, Jesus did not assume
you are separate, as ego-self would have it; otherwise the logic would have
been a succession of three commands: love God, love yourself, love your
neighbor. Here, there are only two commands and the second is like the first;
for the assumption is being in union with God (as True Self), you love Him (who
subsumes you) with all your all, and the second is like the first: in union
with God (as True Self), you love your neighbor as yourself (with all your all)
as s/he too is subsumed in God.
Now,
from this perspective of union and True Self, it is easier to understand as
well the teaching revealed by God in
the New Covenant on these Two Great Commandments of Jesus (CCC 2083), that the First Great Commandment relates
to the first three Commandments of the Decalogue and the Second Great Commandment relates to the rest of the Decalogue. We recall
the Ten Commandments, don’t we? The first three [loving God]: I am the Lord,
your God, you shall not have strange gods before me; you shall not take the
name of the Lord, your God, in vain; remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day. The
remaining seven [loving neighbor]: honor your father and your mother; you shall
not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not
bear false witness against another; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; you
shall not covet your neighbor’s goods. For we, are all One.
Remember
Christ’s statement “It is easier for a camel to pass through [the] eye of [a]
needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”? He clarified
that “For
human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God”.
(cf Mark 10:22-27) When you are in True
Self, in a state of full communion, you are One with God (Father, Son, Holy
Spirit); wouldn’t you think that in that state, all things would be possible
for you, including heaven? Thus: for ego-self humans, impossible; for True Self
humans, possible… Moreover, while still on earth, in True Self, “…we
have this confidence in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He
hears us. And if we know that He hears us in regard to whatever we
ask, we know that what we have asked Him for is ours.” (1John5:14-15)
You would note that we can know His will if we are one with Him and so we can
ask accordingly.
As
True Self, we are the spiritual man (being one with Spirit) possessed of true
wisdom. As St. Paul counselled: “Yet we
do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of
the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious,
hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none
of the rulers of this age knew; for if they had known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: ‘What eye has not seen, and
ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has
prepared for those who love him,’ this God has revealed to us through the
Spirit. For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among
human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the
person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the
Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that
is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And
we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words
taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms…. The spiritual person, xxxx, can judge
everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone. For ‘who has known the
mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1Corinthians2:6-13,14-16)
Hmmm.
True self, spiritual man, true wisdom, mind of Christ…. Short and easy, isn’t
it?
Not
really. Ego-self is clingy, persistent, and never accepts defeat; so the shift
to True Self is an unending striving. “…the
natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him
it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged
spiritually” (1Corinthians2:14) You notice the pointed questions you were
asking earlier? Wasn’t that ego-self whining and defensively attacking?
Let’s
take a look again at what the Lord said about discipleship and try to get a
hold of their meanings: “…whoever does not
take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:38)
This is the first mention of the cross in Matthew, explicitly that of the
disciple, but implicitly that of Jesus [and follow after me]. Crucifixion was a
form of capital punishment used by the Romans for offenders who were not Roman
citizens. (NABRE Note on Matthew 10:38)
To follow Christ you must humbly get quiet to listen for his word within your heart, then you must wait to hear Him, then you must obey Him.
Self-denial occurs by obeying
the Lord's voice instead of your will, [His
will, not your will]; this is the cross. (Worthington).
Matthew
10:38 tells us that the moment we decide to take the cross, the condition for
discipleship is already fulfilled. We must have at least the willingness to
take hold of the cross. But we understand that when we accept the cross, when
we take hold of the cross, it is with the intention to go all the way to
Calvary. The moment we accept the cross, we are on the road to dying. We are on
the way to losing our life. This means that I am willing to experience the
cross in my own life. Jesus suffered everything for our sins. But He asks of us
that we suffer with Him. The cross is not something that only Jesus endures.
The cross must be something that becomes truly mine, in my own heart. ‘Unless
you are willing to experience personally the cross in your life, you cannot be
My disciple.’ (I-Bing Cheng)
“Whoever
finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it.” (Matthew 10:39) One who denies Jesus in order to save one’s earthly life will be
condemned to everlasting destruction; loss of earthly life for Jesus’ sake will
be rewarded by everlasting life in the kingdom. (NABRE Note on Matthew 10:39)
To find the
superior life of God, Christ
must put off the body of the sins of your flesh by circumcising your heart,
destroying all sin in you; which
occurs by you following Jesus on the
inward cross of self-denial, to
thereby save your soul to live the superior Life of God in
union with God. If
you live after the flesh [the sinful nature], you will die; but if through the
Spirit you mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, you will live.
(Worthington)
“Then
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny
himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’”
(Matthew 16:24-25) ‘Deny himself’: to
deny someone is to disown him [see Mt 10:33; 26:34–35] and to deny oneself is to disown oneself as the center of
one’s existence. A readiness to follow Jesus even to giving up one’s life for
him is the condition for true discipleship; this will be repaid by him at the
final judgment. (NABRE Notes on Matthew 16:24-28) To follow is to be led
by the Spirit.
To be led, you must persistently and patiently sit in humble
silence to wait
on the Lord, as you listen for his
word within your heart to speak
to you; then you must obey
Him. Self-denial
occurs by obeying
the Lord's voice instead of your will, [His will, not your will]; this is the inward cross of self-denial. First, He will
lead you out
of darkness
to a sinless
state;
to then guide your thoughts, words, and works;
which works show His glory and love
to the world. (Worthington)
“If
anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.” (Luke
9:23). ‘Daily’: this is a Lucan addition to a saying of Jesus, removing
the saying from a context that envisioned the imminent suffering and death of
the disciple of Jesus [as does the saying in Mk 8:34–35] to one that
focuses on the demands of daily Christian existence. (NABRE Note on Luke 9:23) To
follow Christ you must persistently [daily] and patiently go to Him to sit in humble silence as you wait on Him, listening and watching for his word within your heart; when you hear Him, then you must obey Him. To obey is to follow. Self-denial occurs by obeying
the Lord's voice instead of your
will, [His
will, not your will]; this is taking
up the cross, which
is the power of God to free
you from sin. The cross is to your
will and your carnal mind, which must
be denied. (Worthington)
“For
whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my
sake will save it.” (Luke
9:24) When you continually deny yourself and obey the Lord's commands, you will
eventually die to your selfish life on the
inward cross of self-denial, and thereby save your soul to live Life in
union with God.
If
you live after the flesh [the sinful nature], you will die; but if through the
Spirit you mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, you will live. To find the
superior life of God, you must crucify
your selfish life on the
inward cross of self-denial, and
thereby find the
Life of God in
union with God. (Worthington)
“He summoned the crowd with his disciples and
said to them, ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the
gospel will save
it.’” (Mark 8:34-35) This
utterance of Jesus challenges all believers to authentic discipleship and total
commitment to himself through self-renunciation and acceptance of the cross of
suffering, even to the sacrifice of life itself. ‘Whoever wishes to save his
life will lose it…will save it’: an expression of the ambivalence of life and
its contrasting destiny. Life seen as
mere self-centered earthly existence and lived in denial of Christ ends in
destruction, but when lived in loyalty to Christ, despite earthly death, it arrives
at fullness of life. (NABRE Note on Mark 8:34-35). “To follow Jesus we must first seek to
hear the Lord
speak to us by patiently and persistently listening in humble
silence. To obey what we hear Him command us to do is to follow Jesus. From the Word of the Lord within: ‘Stop
following men. Everyone listen
to what the Spirit says; this you
follow. Master following: Follow precisely; do not deviate.’ Those
who live in the flesh [sinful nature] cannot please God. [Rom 8:8]. You must mortify
all sin in your body to save your soul
and obtain the
superior life of God, making Christ
the Lord of all your words and deeds,
while on earth, and then forever.” (Worthington)
“Whoever does not carry his own cross and
come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27) … “In the same way, everyone of you who does
not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33) The collection of sayings [in 25-33] most of
which are peculiar to Luke, focuses on the total dedication necessary for the
disciple of Jesus. No attachment to family
[Lk
14:26] or possessions [Lk 14:33] can stand in the way of the total
commitment demanded of the disciple. Also, acceptance of the call to be a
disciple demands readiness to accept persecution and suffering [Lk
14:27] and a realistic assessment of the hardships and costs [Lk
14:28–32]. (NABRE Notes
on Luke 14:25-33). “The
blind guides of Christendom ignore
the cross and tell
their followers that they are already saved just by believing in Jesus; but unless you carry the
inward cross of self denial to
crucify
your selfish lusts, passions, and desires,
you
will be banned from heaven at death.
To come after Christ you must wait in humble silence, listening for Him to speak to you from the Word within your heart; faith is to hear Him, and then you must obey Him.
Self-denial occurs by obeying
the Lord's voice instead of your
will, [His
will, not your will]; this is bearing
the cross — the
inward cross of self-denial. Everyone
who has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or
wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold,
and will inherit everlasting life. [Mat 19:29].
When you continually deny yourself and obey the Lord's commands, you will
forsake your entire selfish life, and thereby save your soul to live Life in
union with
God.” (Worthington)
Thus
you move from selfish “life of the flesh” to enlightened “Life in union with
God”. St. Paul contra-distinguishes the dynamics of the works of flesh and the fruits
of spirit in Galatians: “Now
the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of
fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions
of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those
who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to
Christ [Jesus] have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envious of one
another.” (Galatians 5:19-26)
Constant
consciousness of our own tendencies would encourage our souls to overcome our
sinful nature in the hope of living in righteousness and to the will of God. “After
your
sinful nature has been put to death on the
inward cross of self-denial, then you
belong to Christ
as you
walk in love,
following
the Spirit,
fulfilling
the law;
and then you receive an imputed
righteousness.
Having suffered
on the cross, you no longer live the rest of your time in the lusts of men, but
you live to the will of God, [1 Pet 4:1-2]; which is to be obediently led and guided by the Spirit
in thoughts, words, and deeds.” (Worthington)
Overcoming
the predilections of our fallen nature would be tantamount to dying to our
ego-self. So are there examples of specific ways to die to our ego-self? St.
Paul tells us in Romans 6: “We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no
longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life,
he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of
yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their
desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as
weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead
to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not
under the law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin
because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as
obedient slaves you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which
leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans
6:9-16)
This
passage in Romans says that we die to (ego) self when: (1) we count ourselves
crucified with Christ [Romans 6:11]; (2) we count ourselves dead to sin,
but alive to God [Romans 6:11]; (3) we do not let sin reign in our bodies [Romans
6:12]; (4) we do not present the members of our bodies as instruments of sin [Romans
6:13a]; (5) we yield ourselves to God – as much as those who are alive from the
dead are yielded to God [Romans 6:13b]; and (6) we present the members of our
bodies as instruments of righteousness [Romans 6:13c] (cf I-Bing Cheng)
As
we can see, the explanations after the pertinent passages give us an idea of just
how “great” it is to follow Jesus: it’s simply, all or nothing.
All
or nothing! Sigh! … So, in light of all the above citations on carrying the
cross of self-denial and obedience daily, presenting the body as tool of
righteousness, etc, etc, etc, etc, what now: in summary, how do we go to
heaven?
In
addition to following the above pointers, in your daily TEAs (thoughts,
emotions, actions):
1.
disown and discard ego-self; crucify it if you must, chiefly its sneaky
passions and desires;
2.
unveil, reveal, embrace, stay and live/move/walk/have-your-being in True Self; and
3.
focus on Jesus and your At-One-Ment with Holy Trinity as The Center Of Your Existence.
Of
course, it is His will that surely gets done. So it would be advisable to live
in humble realization that your thinking (and this piece is a very puny one) is
extremely tiny compared with the Lord’s; it would also be good to stay in submission
to His Grace and Mercy (beware of ego-self’s pride always on the lurk), even as
you do all the above.
And
in the same manner that “The gift of God’s Spirit to the Galatians came from
the gospel received in faith, not from doing what the law enjoins” (NABRE Notes
on Galatians 3:1-14), keep reading the Bible and sacred sources in faith and in
expectation of God’s gift of His Spirit.
Finally, let’s continue taking action trusting in “The
Power of God’s Promise”. “His divine power has bestowed on us everything
that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power. Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great
promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after
escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control,
self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion
with mutual affection, mutual affection with love. If
these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle
or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who lacks
them is blind and shortsighted, forgetful of the cleansing of his past sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more
eager to make your call and election firm, for, in doing so, you will never
stumble. For, in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and
savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.” (2 Peter 1:3-11)
REFERENCES:
1. Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
2. Fr. John Dear, http://www.fatherjohndear.org/sermons_homilies/drinkthecup.htm
3. Hall V. Worthington and Joan Worthington, http://www.hallvworthington.com/getverses.php?
Search=luke%209:23-24,Gal%205:24,Matthew%2010:38-39,16:24-25,mark8:34-5,luke%2014:27,33
;&version=160;
4. New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)
5. Richard Rohr
Daily Meditations, Center for Action
and Contemplation no-reply@cac.org via cacradicalgrace.ccsend
6. Yves
I-Bing Cheng, M.D., M.A., “He Who Does Not Take His Cross” Matthew 10:38-39
http://www.meetingwithchrist.com/E054%20He%20who%20does%20not%20take% 20his%20cross %20-%20Mt%2010%2838-39%29.htm
