Dying to Ourselves in Order to Live in Christ

[Veritas1994]

walkinginthedesert.com/2014/01/02/dying-to-ourselves-in-order-to-live-in-christ/

Just wanted to share an article

Something that is almost forgotten in modern society, as well as to many Catholics and Christians in general is the act of dying daily to ourselves in order to live in Christ. It was Christ himself who stated constantly in the Gospels the necessity of carrying one’s cross and of denouncing ourselves for the Kingdom of Christ. He stated in (Mathew 10:38-39) “And he who does not take up his cross and follow me, is not worthy of me”. He who finds his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake, will find it. He later stated in (Mathew 16:24-26) “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For he who would safe his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it”.

This command for the Christian by Jesus seems quite radical and yet contradictory. “How can we gain life by losing it? With a little bit of logic however we can find that it is not a contradiction, but rather a paradox (two things that seem contradictory but are actually true). Christianity is the religion of paradox: “That God would be human, that life comes from death, that achievement comes through failure, that folly is wisdom, that happiness is to mourn, that to find one must lose, and that the greatest are the smallest. What is paradoxical about the mysteries of the faith is that reason cannot fully penetrate their meaning, so that what seems contradictory to reason is profoundly true in terms of faith”.1It is when we understand this notion of paradox and that at the same time there are some things beyond human reason that we ought to put our faith in God that we can really understand what it means to die to ourselves.

We see how in modern society this is often not the case. People giving in daily to their passions, sinful behavior, greed, avarice, and homosexuality. Even things like abortion are not uncommon, for most people fear the loss of a possibility of a career if a baby should happen to come their way. This is the result of a lack of faith in God’s divine providence. It is not only in sin though that we fail to carry our crosses, but also in not practicing temperance and penance, abstinance, and the like that we fail to carry our crosses. Father George Leo Haydock in his Haydock Commentary states the two ways in which we are to carry our crosses.

There are two kinds of crosses which our Saviour here commands us to take up: one corporal, and the other spiritual. By the former, he commands us to restrain the unruly appetites of the touch, taste, sight, &c. By the other, which is far more worthy our notice, he teaches us to govern the affections of the mind, and restrain all its irregular motions, by humility, tranquillity, modesty, peace, &c2

Jesus thus reminds us to deny ourselves not only from that which is morally bad such as sin (which we should always avoid) but even from genuinely good things such as when we abstain or fast from food, water or sleep. Not because these things such as food and water are bad, but that by sacrificing and giving these goods up, we get the greatest good in return, namely God and Christ. “But if he continues moderately happy as to temporal concerns till death, and places his affections on them, he hath found life here, but shall lose it in the next world. But he that shall, for the sake of Christ, deprive himself of the pleasures of this life, shall receive the reward of a hundred fold in the next”.3

This is what reminds me as I am discerning the priesthood and the religious life that the priesthood is a calling that involves a lot of sacrifice and constant dying to ourselves. For just as marriage involves the sacrifice of complete faithfulness to one’s wife, as well as of using most of one’s time for raising a family, the priesthood itself is a sacrifice. By being a priest I am giving up a great good and vocation, namely that of marriage and of starting a family, for a greater good and vocation, that of serving Christ in the priesthood. It is one of constant dying to oneself, of letting God take me where He wills, and not where I will.

I am often reminded of a Spanish hymn often presented in a Spanish Mass as well as funerals done in Spanish titled Entre Tus Manos (In your hands) The hymn states that in order to live we ought to die, it is the same theme as talked about above in which we find life when we lose it.

It is pretty silly when Christians in the modern world pretend to be able to live differently than that of Christ. For where Christ suffered even to death on a cross, many Christians live even to death of their soul. As Catholics are we not to imitate Christ in his life? Thomas Kempis in his book The Imitation of Christ describes how the Crucifixion of Christ relates to our own selves. “How is it, then that you seek any other way to heaven than this plain, high way of the Cross? All the life of Christ was Cross and martyrdrom; do you seek pleasure and joy? 4

When we let ourselves follow Christ the way he will and not our way, but rather die to ourselves that we many live in Christ that we can really be truly happy and prosperous. This is not to happen in this life but in the next.

 

[sirach2v4]

From the time I was old enough to read through sections of our big family bible, I could not stop wondering how beautiful the writings were.

It really takes a lot (of something) to appropriately react to even a few verses of scripture, these verses about dying to self.

First of all, it seems to be impossible to do this. You’ve got to live someplace and earn money to feed yourself and do a lot of other things, like getting a job and, before that, getting the education that you need for that job.

How can I just up and “die” to myself?

Now, at the end of Mt’s gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to baptize all nations and teach them to observe all that he has commanded.

So, here’s definitely one thing that he has commanded. That’s for sure.

What is the key that unlocks the meaning of Jesus’ command?

If you really apply this, look how many people’s jobs would be wiped out, because we were not indulging ourselves in all the banality of organized sports, for example, or watching so much television, as another example. We could start by wiping out arts and crafts, for example. “poof” they’re all gone. Now, what do we do? So much of our life is virtually meaningless. We simply indulge ourselves in fishing, boating, hunting, bowling, skiing, baseball – it’s really all a distraction from God. Yeah, and now you get me started about politics – what a real waste of time.

How do we do it? Are there enough caves for all of us?

 

[Veritas1994]

From the time I was old enough to read through sections of our big family bible, I could not stop wondering how beautiful the writings were.

It really takes a lot (of something) to appropriately react to even a few verses of scripture, these verses about dying to self.

First of all, it seems to be impossible to do this. You’ve got to live someplace and earn money to feed yourself and do a lot of other things, like getting a job and, before that, getting the education that you need for that job.

How can I just up and “die” to myself?

Now, at the end of Mt’s gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to baptize all nations and teach them to observe all that he has commanded.

So, here’s definitely one thing that he has commanded. That’s for sure.

What is the key that unlocks the meaning of Jesus’ command?

If you really apply this, look how many people’s jobs would be wiped out, because we were not indulging ourselves in all the banality of organized sports, for example, or watching so much television, as another example. We could start by wiping out arts and crafts, for example. “poof” they’re all gone. Now, what do we do? So much of our life is virtually meaningless. We simply indulge ourselves in fishing, boating, hunting, bowling, skiing, baseball – it’s really all a distraction from God. Yeah, and now you get me started about politics – what a real waste of time.

How do we do it? Are there enough caves for all of us?

Dying to yourself does not mean (preventing yourself from enjoying the legitimate good things of life) even Christ enjoyed the legitimate things in life but it does mean putting these things before God. It means doing God’s will despite having to offer yourself up.

The reason why many people reject Christianity is because the idea of paradox is too advanced to human reason and thus they reject it. There is no faith- which is itself based on reason.

There are different ways in which we can come to know truth. There is a hierarchy of truth, just as there is a hierarchy of one form or another in mostly everything. It is what I call the case for authority which is often rejected in modern society. Thus the first level and most simple of truths are those truths which we know as self-evident such as that men have life, free will, or the fact that everything which began to exist must have been brought into existence by something distinct from itself.-Saint Thomas Aquinas.

A higher level of truths are those which “we can draw by a process of reasoning, that is, not by comparing two concepts directly with each other, but by comparing each with a third, on the principle that two things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other”.

Other things we know to be true from the evidence of our senses. We can trust our senses unhesitatingly if the sense we are using, e.g., sight or hearing, is in a normal condition and properly applied to the object". For example we can tell that lemons are green, or that the Sun is primarily yellow.

Some truth we simply accept on the authority of other people. If our belief rests on the testimony of man, who can err, it is human faith. For let’s say that you are looking for a date and your friend hooks you up on a blind date with a girl he tells you is attractive, smart, well mannered, educated, and so on. You put faith in this because you trust your friend’s word. In other words you trust his authority. It is though an imperfect authority since it is human authority and thus liable to error.

The highest truth however which in Christianity is called the “Mysteries of the faith” is that which is revealed by God Himself. If it rests on the testimony of God, who can not err, it is Divine Faith. As the act of faith states “O MY GOD, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in Three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I believe that Thy Divine Son became Man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived”. Thus we believe this things because God has revealed them plain and simple.

God does not command of us something that we cannot do. God gives us only that which we can handle. For different people it will be different things. Some people have been given a lot more graces to do greater things, and some of us were not given as much. It is like the parable of the good stewarts and the bad stewart who refused to do that which was commanded of him.

 

[sirach2v4]

Perhaps the starting point of 'dying to self" is to take one of my sins at a time, and working at eliminating it.