Our decision voluntarily to follow God leaving our past and old life in place of new life in Christ is what God prefers most from us, as was the case of Mary Magdalene. Faith and good work go together, Martha combined both, and hence we ought to do same always. The incomprehensibility of God is a mystery which we offer and that we ought to appreciate in our daily struggles for it will go a long way in elevating our character. We ought to know that the devil is ever ready to put us off from God; hence we ought to be careful. Nothing should come between God and our rightful decisions to follow him.
Holiness attracts, hence this relationship with holy people ought to be encouraged. The avoidance of the devil is not only by our fasting from food or drink, but we can avoid the devil by our work when we commend them to God, as we do them religiously and devoutly. Our eternity and position before God is what we make of it personally and subjectively.
For perfection in the spiritual life, the obedience of the will helps in the mortification and ascetic life hence there are enrichment of the knowledge and increase in virtue. The spirit of detachment in spiritual life increases the imitation of Christ’s love in us. The life of a monk is spiritually fruitful if there is a search to be perfect through fear of God and diligence. By this diligence, the celestial journey is channeled directly without much distraction. The life of servants of God is, and ought to be a sign of contradiction to the world, for the world loves what is properly hers. Our trust and faith in God should not be like that of the Israelites when they deserted and worshipped a golden calf as God. Therefore, perfection in virtues is easily arrived where love and humility are applied with prudence added to it. Our fight towards materialism ought to be good when we sincerely denounce what we attach ourselves by our hearts, if not it may lead us to abject “spiritual-materialism”. Renunciation is a true gift from the inner self because of sincere love of God. God can never allow us to embrace a cross more than our capability and faith in him, but cross is essentially necessary to us all. As Christians, we cannot claim any personal perfection without the help of God. Our spiritual growth is enlightened and nourished by God through our little accord.
Our virtues are ought to be observed and experienced by others so that God is glorified by the assignments given to us for the spiritual and moral growth of others. Spiritual and moral tepidity grow rapidly by our lax and laziness combined with wickedness. Nobody is able to defect the devil if not the grace of God abounds in him. Therefore our spirit is fortified by God, that our will may be able to follow our heart’s desires overcoming the evil inclination in us. The constant struggle or fight against luxuries and pleasures of the flesh are ever supported by the power of Holy Spirit. In self disciplining of the flesh, we become chaste. Sanctity has no half measure way, it is not mediocrity but ever with an igniting flame of love. Carnality is of childish spirituality. Animalistic nature in spiritual life is governed by instincts. Good spiritual man uses well the spiritual power of the will to graduate with prudence in his relationship with God vis-à-vis his fellow human being. The love of excessive possession of the worldly things and property, and adherent to them pollutes always our spirituality and puts a great question mark on our personal holiness, even as a monk, a priest, religious and lay faithful.
Through thorough examination of Serapion ideas on eight capital vices in his conference as seen in John Cassian work: The Conferences Book V, I; it reveals that gluttony and fornication have both at the same time natural and unnatural characters for them to be consummated. Ipso facto, each of us needs a strong desire and actual practice of bodily discipline via vigilance, abstinence, prayer, penance, physical rejection, etc, which will be accompanied by a strong will of the mind. Gluttony, pride and vainglory can easily lead us to “spiritual-materialism” to satisfy our “ego” and not living well a good spiritual life. From the fall of man, the devil tactically uses litany of sins to enslave man gradually when he proves tough to him, until he (devil) is able to win but persistently with Christian struggle we can overcome. The first six vices: gluttony, fornication, filargyria – which is avarice or love of money, anger, sadness and acedia – which is anxiety or weariness of heart; (the 7th is cenodoxia, which is boastfulness or vainglory and the 8th is pride) are interlocked that they are almost practiced because of their web-net; hence the avoidance must start “sui generis”. Gluttony knows no shame; hence it degrades the dignity of someone and that of a priest, monk, religious or laity, hence “in medio virtu stat”. The flame of that which is ignited by fornication is so devastating to the spirit and body that a fornicator needed strict discipline of the self as to stop it (cfr. Ecclesiasticus 23: 16-17). Good spiritual life is ever dynamic in the practice of virtue and it abhors sin. When we relax for a moment as a result of overcoming temptations, the devil tricks us into a more shameful sin.
Prayer is never adhoc venture, but rather a serene preparedness to meet and commence with God. All things being equal, the life of prayer is an antidote to the passion which is not perfected by our struggle against evil. Work is a form of prayer, hence an excellent application of our talents and love of God. The vocabularies used by St. Paul with reference to communication to and with God, thus: supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving (1 Tim 2:1) are summarized in the person and mission of Christ, the Incarnate Word hence, by these forms we are simply identifying with Christ who is the VIA, VERITAS et VITA. Thanksgiving [Eucharist] as a form of prayer summarizes others and is a major and a re-presentation of prayer object – Christ, the Paschal Mystery. Therefore, contemplative and practical ingredients are needed as to reach the goal or end of our prayer life.
Prayer transforms the whole personality and even the mode of thinking, thereby making anew all about the self. The transformation intrinsic in prayer gives hope, and fortifies the virtue that humility is personified in us and by consciousness and conscientiousness; these are transmitted easily to others. This acknowledgment of our nothingness before the Most High God gives us the chance of shaming the devil. Constancy in practice makes permanent, even so in prayer. Prayer is both an act and a thought, therefore constant vigil in it produces a solid and unshakeable character of the soul and body, even when the body is weak, and the soul is ever agile to carry along the whole self.
Perfection is not possible without love and detachment, even when one is immersed into wealth or in the world. There is need for constant solitude and alone with God in our active work or apostolate. In a community living, perfection is obtainable through good examples and koinonia. Sincere love and fear of God breeds the perfect willingness in the practice of virtue, and an interior purity or chastity exemplified. The need of personal sacrifice for the love of God cannot be overemphasized in Christian perfection.
According to St. Thomas, ‘nihil est intellectum non quod primus furiet in sensum’, therefore for perfect chastity, the body’s abstinence from immoral acts ought to be strongly followed by a firm intellectual prohibition of the thoughts or ideas circumventing the sins of impurity. The body only confirms the actions already done in the mind; therefore we always ought to be fighting against the concupiscence of the flesh and the eyes (1 Jn 2:16). The passion of the flesh is very volatile hence with the grace of God, built on the struggling nature we can win. Untamed and uneducated Christian spirituality possesses the filthy and shadow minded character with less deep self control, which leads to constant life of lust and licentiousness. Sexuality is a gift from God, with the chemistry of the body, the physical and biological functions are ever at work and dynamic. Hence, care be must be taken that the dynamism in the chemistry ought to be regulated with the spiritual and moral principles of the will. This regulation and discipline of the biological senses finds tranquility in the continence.
The Psalmist said: ‘If the Lord does not watch the city, in vain do the watchmen keep vigil’ Ps 126: 1. Though the Lord guides us in all our ways, we shall not keep our fingers crossed without making efforts on life. Therefore carefulness and vigilance is highly needed for our spiritual growth. God continues to shower his abundant favours on us irrespective of our inability to ask for healing and protection.
After each sincere sacramental confession, one actually feels light and being relieved of a big weight of timber in his life. This is consequent to the contrite, repentance and reparation done. The fruit of good repentance restore the spiritual dignity and renew the virtuous life which is illumined and graced by the divine flame of the Holy Spirit. This is because there always exists scar or wound of sin in our hearts and intellects, even after metanoia, therefore constant trust and hope in the Lord is very necessary. A devout acceptance of one’s nothingness before God increases the speed of reparation.
The images and thoughts we busy ourselves with during the day time comes to us as a reality in the dream at night. This buttresses the Thomistic fact that, nihil est intellectum non quod primus furiet in sensum. Ipso facto, the discipline of the senses constantly is a sure way in which we can build up our spiritual life. Being immaculate implies without sin. In Christian life we are called to holiness, the power of being immaculate is the same as the person and dignity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as Christians more so priests and religious, our dignity is intrinsic in being immaculate.
Conscious rejection or detachment from what gives us happiness even when it is so dear to us brings us to the world of mortification. We ought to feel this sentiment on our body that it may be really fruitful in our spiritual life; the feelings should be a constant practice and not just once. The act of charity needed a lot of patience to be present before we can joyfully carry it out.
Rev Fr Paul Ikechukwu Ogujioffor is a priest-student in Pontificia Università della Santa Croce Roma.
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