The Cross Walk: Self-Denial Part 7
Disciplines (related to the word “discipleship”) are daily committed actions that we engage in, often through a Rule of Life or what Dan Burke, Founder of Apostoli Viae calls a “Plan of Love”. I often say “I am always practicing something.” If I am stuck traffic and being impatient - in that moment I am practicing being impatient. If I am getting caught up in formulating my response instead of listening to the other person - in that moment I am practicing not listening. Since I am always practicing something in any given moment, it becomes a question of “What am I practicing?”. We become what we practice. Because we want to become like Christ Jesus (alter Christus), we must practice Self-Denial.
What follows is not an exhaustive list of ways to practice Self-Denial. Close study of the Saints - those who really excel at imitating Jesus - is a great way to learn more about Self-Denial. It’s like studying a great professional athlete, dancer or artist. Nevertheless, these are all time tested practices which we see our Lord live out and His saints.
Renunciation: The motto of renunciation is the exact opposite of the world’s motto of “Me, Myself and I”. It is also a holy indifference or detachment. In the case of Self-Denial, it is especially an indifference towards admiration and praise or what others think of oneself. This means that we renounce all that is not motivated by and directed to the love of God and the love of neighbor.
Renunciation is about cultivating a spiritual instinctive response to consider God and neighbor before ourselves. It is to be first and foremost Godward-focused and other-focused.
Renunciation replaces a preoccupation with my rights, my entitlement, what is owed me, etc. with an urgent and sustained concern for God’s will and the good of my neighbor. In this way, renunciation helps to clear away what in reality is coming between me and God and loving those in my circle of influence, care and encounter.
Fear is at the root of an inability to renounce ourselves. We believe that we will loose everything or that which is so vital to our sense of identity, worth or purpose. We believe we will forgo all security. We confuse “giving up” with “surrendering up”. This is what Jesus is trying to speak to when we heard from Matthew and Luke’s His teaching about the spiritual paradox of saving our life by loosing it for His sake or loosing our life when we try to save it. Renunciation helps to heal us of this fear and liberate us from it. It helps us transfer whatever we ground our identity, worth, reputation, security, confidence and more in to God. When Satan tempted Christ in the desert to place His trust in possession, power or prestige, Jesus renounced it all and Himself and clung to the Father.
Forgetfulness of Self:
In the Cross Walk dimension of Self-Denial, forgetfulness of self counteracts our tendency to make ourselves life’s reference point. Rather, we are oriented to a Godward perspective. We hear this kind of orientation in Ignatius’ prayer, the Suspice or “Take and Receive”, when he says, “You have given all to me. To You, O Lord, I return it. All is Yours.” We also see this in Ignatius’ definition of our vocations: to love, praise and serve God.
In this day and age especially, it can be such a struggle to forget ourselves. Social media keeps us so preoccupied with ourselves and driven with an incessant striving to be seen, heard, notice and validated. Today, Narcissus’ reflection comes in the form of a smart phone where we can be gathered about a table but each of us are stuck with a fixated gaze on the glowing screen - checking emails, checking text messages, checking for comments on our FaceBook and more. Through Self-Denial we can become more and more liberated from self-deception and the deception of the evil one and the world. We actually can begin to know ourselves and see ourselves more clearly as we take on God’s viewing point.
One aspect we do not forget is our sin and the great debt we owe to our Savior for His passion and Cross, which wrought our salvation and our hope. We also do not forget God’s great love for us and how He pursues us with an unquenchable love. It always does good to meditate upon this as we meditate upon His Cross.
Emptying or kenosis: This notion of kenosis comes from Paul’s quote of an ancient Christological hymn in Philippians 2:6-11 which says,
“Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. 7 Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, 8 he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”
The word translated “emptied” renders the Greek kenosis meaning “to empty or make void”. “Emptying” as a way of manifesting Self-Denial is the very opposite of the “grasping” that we hear in that same verse. There, the “grasping” carries a sense of “plundering or robbing”.
Self-denial is a way of emptying ourselves to make room for Christ’s life and nature. He heals and frees us from the tyranny of sin and the lasting wounds of sin, so that He can form in us His very supernatural life. We empty ourselves of our agendas.
We seek to empty ourselves of the preeminent place self-trust and self-sufficient hold. This denying of self-trust and self-sufficiency is THE central spiritual work in the Self-Denial dimension of the Cross Walk.
We also empty ourselves of any habitual sins, attachment to sin or wounds of sin. Here, emptying participates in the Purgative Way and contributes to growth in self-knowledge and self-awareness. Emptying ensures that we have a rightly ordered humility towards self (i.e. against pride) and orientation towards God and His great mercy (i.e. against despair). Emptying further supports us in overcoming trials and temptations.
It’s important to highlight something that has been referenced here and there in this spiritual discipline of emptying and it is this: we empty ourselves so as to be filled with Christ and all these graces, virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit made ours through faith. We empty, God fills.
Next week, we’ll look at Virtues which help us live out this dimension of Jesus’ Cross Walk!
