The Cross Walk: Self-Denial Part 2

Central Features & Virtues Related to Self-Denial

Accepting Jesus’ call to be an authentic disciple places us upon His Cross Walk.   Once we start upon this path, we immediately come to the task of Self-Denial.   It is a task that requires our choosing and our active participation; yet, it is a task that is made possible only by God’s supernatural life or sanctifying grace as well as the many actual graces that He makes available to us.  From our choosing to our participation and cooperation, to the many personal moments of encounter and consolation, it is God’s love, mercy and grace at work in and through us.  The Self-Denial dimension of Jesus’ Cross Walk is very much related to the Purgative Way.  As We hear echoing in our ears Jesus’ words to His disciples that when we rely upon our own strength, capabilities, resources and more - it is impossible.  But with God, all things are possible for through the superabundant merits of Christ Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, we have all we need to be more than conquerors.   As Paul exhorts us in his letter to the Philippians:

“12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

In light of our participation, Self-Denial requires us to draw upon spiritual disciplines or practices along with virtue.   As we seek to really bring all this down to a practical level and how this can look on a daily basis, it’s important to keep in mind that the process of the spiritual life looks different for each of us.  We each have different temperaments and personalities, particular backgrounds and experiences and more.  Furthermore, God has a particular will for each of us related to our sanctity and how He manifests the mystery of His providence accordingly.  As such, our Heavenly Father knows us and so offers to us those actual graces and His supernatural working in ways personally customized to who we are and His design for us.  So as we seek to get a bit more into the weeds, we can only go so far.  It will be up to each of us through deep prayer and loving conversation with our Lord, to discern how Self-Denial needs to be express and manifested daily in our spiritual lives.

So, let’s look at what some spiritual practices and virtues that can assist us in growing in our capacity for Self-Denial as disciples of Jesus.  There are many more that can of assistance, but these will help place us firmly upon the path.

SELF-DENIAL

Spiritual Practices - Daily committed actions

Renunciation = To freely giving up that which one has a right or claim upon.

Forgetfulness of Self = To diminish preoccupation with self or self-referencing.

Emptying (kenosis) = To eliminate grasping after self-trust and self-sufficiency.

Virtues - A firm habit and disposition

Faith = The theological virtue whereby we believe in God and believe all that He has revealed and that the Holy Church proposes for our belief, because He is truth itself and by His authority.

Humility = The virtue that makes one modest towards greatness.

Poverty = The virtue that makes one free to love God and others unhindered by the things of this world.

These tried and true means of growing and perfecting in self-denial are all about decreasing ourselves so that Christ may increase in us and through us.    Spiritual Practices or Disciplines (related to the word “discipleship”) are daily committed actions that we engage in, often through a Rule of Life or Plan of Love.   The virtues of Humility and Poverty further aide us in cultivating that interior disposition and firm habit to advance along with the Cross Walk of Self-Denial.   As virtues, these are firm habits and dispositions that ready our capacity for action towards the Good - ultimately God. 

Reflection Questions 

• What do you find yourself reflecting upon from this formation session?   What keeps knocking on the door of your heart?

• Where in your life is Christ asking you to deny yourself and what would a simple, small step look like? 

• What do you need most from Jesus in this dimension of the Cross Walk?  How can you ask Jesus for what you need from Him?

Next week, we’ll unpack these spiritual practices and disciplines of Self-Denial more. Until then, may God bless the work of your hands, hearts and spirits!