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Asceticism in Modern Life The Published Articles of Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm.
Asceticism in Modern Life


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Asceticism in Modern Life


Introduction: Statement of the
Problem
The cross and the resurrection
represent the negative and positive poles of
death and life in Christian existence. They are
correlatives. The evangelical demand of total
renunciation (Lk. 14, 26) is the direct and
immediate counterpart of the law of total love
(Mt. 22, 37). Like poverty of spirit and
contemplation in St. John of the Cross,
unselfishness and charity are practically the
same thing; they exist in direct proportion to
each other. Total commitment to Christ is total
abnegation of self-centeredness.
Death to the old man and a full life in
the Spirit are achieved by the process of
asceticism. This human effort under grace is
complemented by the passive purifications
and mystical graces. In the past asceticism has
emphasized the negative pole and devised
exercises and observances to chastise the body
and bring it into subjection (1 Cor. 9, 27), to
mortify the works of the flesh (Gal. 5, 16-21),
to suffer with Christ in order to be glorified
with him (Rom. 8, 17). Asceticisms task has
been one of discipline and control, its purpose
the achievement of a dynamic equilibrium or
detachment which is the proper disposition for
possessing God in contemplative union. St.
Teresa of Avila summed up this point of view
rather neatly: When we empty ourselves of
all that is creature and rid ourselves of it for
the love of God, that same Lord will fill our
souls with himself.
1
Self-denial, renunciation,
penance and sacrifice have thus been the first
order of business in a spiritual life dominated
by the cross and oriented to a loving
knowledge of God.
Our age has reacted against this type of
asceticism as artificial and opted for a more
positive, outgoing, resurrection-centered
spirituality. People today are impatient with a
cross separated from the resurrection, with
fabricated penances, but especially with any
device that would separate them from the
challenges and suffering of a full-time,
involved life with their fellow human beings.
It is not a matter of being less willing to suffer
or to strive, but rather of accepting the self-
denial inherent in a love of God and this
world. I would like to be able to have a great
love for Christ, wrote one of the clearest
spokesmen for this new asceticism, Teilhard
de Chardin, in the very act of loving the
universe. ... Besides union with God and union
with the world, is there not a union with God
through the world?
2
Such a goal will bring its
own brand of asceticism; the asceticism of
material negations and explicit reduction of
interests and involvements will cede the place
of honor to one which accepts the
unpredictable demands of daily life and duty,
the trials and disappointments, the Teilhardian
diminishments inevitable in the progress of
human life.
This new approach appeals to modern
man. Is it viable? Is it as effective as the old
asceticism of frontal attack and strategic
flight? Can the committed Christian of the
20th century find sanctity without cultivating
the silence and withdrawal, the long formal
prayers and spiritual readings, the penances
and mortification, all of which were key
points in the spiritual life of his forebears? In a
word is the old ascesis passé? These are the
questions of the present paper.
I. Basic Principles
All Christian life is a living of the
paschal mystery and consists in the passage
from death to life sacramentally expressed,
especially in baptism and the holy eucharist,
and existentially lived in ones daily life.
More concretely, the spiritual life is a process The Published Articles of Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm.
Asceticism in Modern Life


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of mortifying egoism and deepening charity.
The passage may be characterized by its
negative or its positive element, i.e., by a
preoccupation with mortification or with
growth in virtue.
Theologically speaking, either
emphasis is acceptable because mortification
implies charity, and acts of virtue are implicit
acts of mortification. In other words, Christian
asceticism is always and only ordered moral
activity. Only inordinate self-love and selfish
preferences need be rejected, even when it is a
question of total abnegation which is a sine
qua non for high sanctity. Total abnegation
and perfect moral virtue are exact equivalents.
Total abnegation does not imply that every
natural desire is evil. It accepts willingly
ordered loves of earthly values, enthusiastic
involvements in human affairs and activities,
or the passionate indifference of Teilhard de
Chardin.
Whether the ascetical effort, therefore,
is explicitly abnegation or virtue, it inexorably
moves the person to detachment and charity.
The Christians fundamental option is not only
an orientation to God but a conversion from
inordinate self-love; hence it is equally
serviced by negative and positive acts. Proper
spiritual direction decides the individual
proportion of involvement in the world and
withdrawal from it, of the use or the
renouncement of human goods. Detachment
actually implies a rich love of the world, since
it is nothing less than freedom rooted in
charity. It is an utter openness to reality and a
willingness to respond to whatever call God
gives. Each Christian must be totally
detached; pride and concupiscence must never
get in the way of his service of God. But the
detachment can be expressed as much in
dedication to building up the earth as flight to
the desert. We at once see, wrote Cardinal
Suhard, on what conditions human endeavor
is made possible and legitimate; it is not a
question of how much, or of where, but of the
spirit.
3

II. Forms of Asceticism
The state of perfect detachment and
perfect charity is attained only gradually.
Heirs of original sin, we enter the world
alienated from God and disintegrated within
ourselves. As Christians we are redeemed, it is
true, and there is no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8, 1). But the
work of progressive redemption remains. We
still experience conflict between the law of
God and the law of the members within (cf.
Rom. 7) and we still must struggle against
enmity toward our neighbor without (cf. Eph.
2, 14); ascesis is necessary to achieve
integration within and unity without. The
work is the Spirits from beginning to end, but
he calls upon our free response and
cooperation. The two forms of asceticism are
two such responses.
The older form conceives the Christian
life in terms of personal transformation rather
than service or apostolate. Transformation
comes first; service is an addition or effect.
This older spirituality is frankly
contemplative; it centers the life of the
Christian in prayer, i.e., in conversation with
God that begins here and continues into
eternity. It singles out the otherworldly,
transcendent aspects of the mystery of Christ,
concerns itself almost exclusively with the
individuals relationship with God and not his
relationship to his fellowmen or his world and
pays scant attention to mans responsibility of
building up the new heaven and the new earth.
The kingdom of God is a kingdom of souls,
whose salvation is the one thing necessary,
the one absolute. All else is relative. Human
affairs, for example, or temporal realities have
no permanent significance; they are mere
means, valuable in proportion to their
usefulness for the salvation of souls, but in
themselves destined for the dust heap.
In this perspective and in view of
mans weakness the only logical course of
action for the Christian is to consider this
world a hazard and pitfall and to flee from it. The Published Articles of Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm.
Asceticism in Modern Life


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Tutiorism takes over and counsels withdrawal
from earthly concerns lest one be led astray.
The practices of mortification aim to
neutralize the bodys influence; the senses and
faculties are denied their proper objects in
order to promote better equilibrium and allow
for the peaceful search of contemplative union
with God. Silence and solitude discourage
dissipation and worldliness. Inordinate self-
love is ruthlessly sought out in ones every
action and directly dealt with either by
rejection of the action or by protest; an
insurance against inordinate self-love is to
seek the difficult rather than the easy, the
unappealing instead of the pleasant.
Detachment rather than charity thus
directs the ascetical efforts in this system. If
God is to be encountered in prayer and
religious