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| Hermit's Cave |
One of those times was when I left the Anglican priesthood to become a Catholic. We had a large house in a sleepy English village, two beautiful thousand-year old churches, a quiet life and a secure living. I could have hunkered down and stayed there for a very long time, walking the dog, reading books, raising a family and serving the Lord.
But I had to become a Catholic. So we left it all. We moved across the country where I had a job with a video production company that went bust soon after I joined (it wasn't my fault) and so I was unemployed. We lived in a little duplex. More kids came along. Things were not easy.
I'm not telling this to toot my horn, but to mention something bigger. It's this: when persecution comes to the church the only ones who will survive are those who have already learned renunciation.
If you just once give up everything for the Lord Christ you will never again be in chains. If you walk away from everything--just once in your life-- you will be able to do it again.
I have no recipe for how each other person should face renunciation, it may come to you voluntarily when you have to choose between your conscience and your job, or when you have to choose between being enslaved to a boss and an institution that has compromised the faith, or it may come to you through life's circumstances.
You may lose your job. You may lose your health. You may lose your marriage. You may lose your security. You may lose everything. Embrace it. This is your chance for renunciation. This is your chance to learn how to rely on your wits, your wisdom, your faith and your God, and you will find an inner freedom you did not know was possible.
What are the benefits of such renunciation. First of all, your own courage and self esteem and personal power will flourish. If you make an act of renunciation of your own free will you are given a new and amazing power and energy.
Secondly, through renunciation you claim authority over whatever it is that enslaved you. This is where renunciation of worldly goods through crazily generous giving will set you free. When you give an amazingly stupid amount of your money away you are telling your money who's boss. You are taking charge. You are no longer enslaved to money and the things and security you think it can buy.
Thirdly, renunciation reverberates. When you renounce something (even if it is in secret) that action of strength and generosity reverberates in the world. Other people notice your new found freedom. Other people follow your example. Other people live like you do, or at least they want to.
I said to my fifteen year old son the other day, "You know what? I don't care about material things. I really don't. We have a nice house and cars and nice stuff, but I could walk away from it all tomorrow. I really could." He thought for a moment and said quietly, "I'm like that too." See? Live the life even a little bit and it reverberates.
Fourthly, renunciation sharpens your spiritual life. When you renunciate immediately your true values snap into place. Suddenly you can listen to God's voice because a lot of the other clutter and noise has been thrown away and turned off.
Finally, through renunciation--freedom. This is why the friars and monks and sisters and nuns and priests are supposed to be poor--not because there is any particular virtue in being impoverished, but because through renunciation they are free. They can serve God not mammon. They can serve Christ the King and not their boss or their bank account.
This is why, when persecution comes only those who have already been practicing renunciation will survive. Only those who have already been living sacrificially will be able to make the ultimate sacrifice. Only those who have already broken their slavery to material things, to power and to worldly security will stand. That is because the earthly power will discover that they have no power over these brave souls. The earthly power will not be able to take anything from them, for they already have nothing to lose.
How will Americans stand when they have become so soft, so self indulgent, so egotistical, so enslaved to their material wealth and worldly pleasures? How will they be able to give up everything for the truth when they cannot even give up a little of their wealth and security and pleasure for the sake of God's kingdom now?
This is the real reason for renunciation during Lent--not just to give up some little pleasure or to enact some personal discipline.
It is to practice renunciation, for the purification of our souls and for the encircling gloom.
How is that donate button working out for you? Give me a break.
ReplyDeleteMaria:
ReplyDeleteI think that St. Francis had a donate button. What is your point?
Maria, I don't know how much you renounce your worldly goods. You don't know how much I do.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't judge me I won't judge you. How's that?
Wonderful article Father, as always.
ReplyDeleteVery good, Father. Well said. I think I shall reread the Book of Maccabees for further contemplation along these very lines. God bless you!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this outstanding article! It's very true. Twice in my life I've left everything I "owned" to follow a path God had opened to me. It gets easier each time.
ReplyDeleteSharing this article. Thank you so much for reminding your readers that giving back to God what he has given, is joyful and purifying!
Well said Father Longnecker.
ReplyDeleteHowever I think Americans might do ok when it comes to this. I think most people do. As you said, it's not easy at first but that freedom that comes along with it is a great feeling. I think most people almost want to do without these worldly attachments but we usually need a bit of a kick in the rear to realize it.
Fr. Longenecker, I have the sharpest feeling that God is speaking to me directly through this post. Thank you so much. I also think you are right. I suspect that there is great freedom on the other side of renunciation, but just as St. Augustine heard the whispers of his mistresses in his heart (Confessions, VIII), so the whispers of my attachments cause me to fear what is very likely the land of freedom.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Father!
ReplyDeleteThis was a very good write up on a very timely issue concerning all that is going on with the global economy. Forced renunciation frightens people because of the fear of the unknown, of the never before experience of poverty.
ReplyDeleteI also see this issue from the other side of the coin of possession of material goods. As you get older (I am now 57) you realize that they are in reality a burden that does indeed keep you enslaved to them; especially if you still have to spend resources and time to maintain them - burden upon burden. A very cluttered and distracted daily life causing you to never find time for prayer. This is in sharp contrast to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross where before the entire world He renounced everything, His health, His life, letting them take everything away from Him.
This gasoline prices are threatening to reach or surpass $5.00 per gallon which will for many people be the forced renunciation of your freedom of movement. You can't just jump in the car and go where ever and when ever you want; now it could be a budget buster.
Many of the countries getting bailout funds are required by their benefactors to institute austerity measures upon the citizens causing panic, fear, and even rioting. Forced renunciation of worldly goods. I agree very much with you father that those who have already voluntarily renounced many or all of their worldly goods don't have very much to fear. Those who were forced to in the past to renounce worldly good also get it.
It could be true that we Americans are the most enslaved people on the planet because our mammon demands servitude and we have way too much of it. It is better to more and more focus on giving your money to the poor rather than submit to impulse buying of goods that will bring you no joy. Instead of freedom to serve God in our daily lives we become servants of our debt that grows larger and larger as we buy stuff we never really wanted in the first place.
One thing I always remind myself of is that God is still in charge and is ready to relieve us of our burdens of servitude to mammon and exchange it for the light burdens and easy yokes of Jesus. May God bless everyone of us during the time of Lent that begins tomorrow with the grace of choosing to draw closer to Him and away from the world.
Jim Lytle
In one sense, we have all renounced something, for we have all left the warmth and safety of the womb, though not of our own choosing. But it becomes in a sense, the model for all our future renunciations, even the touchstone for understanding of being born again in water and the spirit, choosing this time of our own accord to be cold and naked before the world.
ReplyDeleteYou make me laugh, Father. Nothing you've done compares even slightly to migrant workers, refugees, victims of war, natural disasters or anything the holy martyrs had to endure.
ReplyDeleteLook at Russia last century, life for average people was rough or by your standards most everyone was schooled in "renunciation", and few people were able to stand up for the faith, and those who did suffered unimaginable horrors, nothing which, oh my gosh, moving to another town so you could fulfill the dream of being a Catholic apologist could compare. Please, you sound like a giddy princess who milked a cow, rolled around in some hay, and now thinks she's a peasent. Have fun playing "persecuted" just be careful not to break any nails, or to get your skirt dirty.
Gritted my teeth as I read this piece, recognizing truth, but dreading applicability in my own life.
ReplyDeleteLater arrived home from work to find that my 13 year daughter had been brutally attacked.
Renunciation -- in this instance accepting that God would permit this cross for my beloved little one and our family -- costs, big time. Placing all that we hold dear in His hands is agonizing, as is waiting on him for tomorrow.
Would value your prayers. Blessings ...
Embrace losing my marriage (in the future tense)? Please explain...
ReplyDeleteThanks for this father. Very timely, it reminded me of the quote from the film "Fight Club":
ReplyDelete"...an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables — slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s**t we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. We're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very p****d off..."
Only you were much more genteel.
PP, I think Maria's point is that she is an Anonymous blogger.
ReplyDeleteVladek, of course you are absolutely correct, and I would never wish to compare my small renunciations with the sufferings of the persecuted saints.
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand, each person's way is different. Each soul is has their own path.
St Therese "suffered" much by putting up with an old nun clattering her rosary beads and considered bourgeois parties for nice French girls to be the height of 'worldliness'.
To each his own.
Well said and important to take note of. Persecution is coming and is already here for some. May we all stand strong.
ReplyDeletePadre,
ReplyDeleteGreat article-as usual.
As a Yankee, I think you made a valid choice in pointing out America's current spiritual fight. I believe, however, that the current Anti-Christian American Administration has awakened a sleeping tiger, not just in Catholics, but multiple conservative Christians here. May God give us the power to kick the enemy back to hell.
Father, I agree with what you're saying about people making use of sufferings and renunciations for their spiritual benefit and according to their capacity of enduring them. However, once you start talking about this being something that can prepare you for persecution, or when you're talking about someone "losing everything" while maintaining a quality of life that more than a billion people alive today would envy, then you can't help but look out of touch with reality, or perhaps a tad melodramatic. If you really want people to prepare for persecution then suggest something like: the next time you need to have a tooth pulled, tell the dentist not to use an anaesthetic.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of persecution, the far more likely scenario for the Catholic Church in the U.S. and Europe is just being ignored to an ever greater extent, becoming isolated like the Amish. Places where the church was violently persecuted in Europe in the last 200 hundred years(e.g. Spain, France, Russia) it was overtly tied to political power beforehand.
Vladek
ReplyDelete"Speaking of persecution, the far more likely scenario for the Catholic Church in the U.S. and Europe is just being ignored to an ever greater extent, becoming isolated like the Amish."
The Amish WANT to be ignored and isolated, that's part of being Amish...Catholics don't and shouldn't!)
Catholics are persecuted (killed, loose everything they own, raped, imprisoned, etc) in MANY parts of the world all the time. Some aren't even allowed to own Bibles, and attend "underground" masses. While it may be better in Europe, Europe is a very small part of the world...and while it isn't so extreme in the U.S., it still exists, check out some Chick puplications sometime, nasty, violent stuff...Bob Jones text books are a good example too...
Father
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for posting this wonderful piece.