Detachment - Part 1 (Intro and "The dimming of vision")

These days I'm reading Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel - On Prayer, a radically challenging book calling us to truly live out the gospel as did Saints John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.

Fr. Thomas Dubay tells of how God wants to give us joy and peace beyond imagining. Yet this joy and peace comes only when we are stripped bare, when we are suffering, carrying our cross, dying to ourselves. Once we are emptied, God fills us.

But how can we come to know this joy and peace? Through union with God. Not only in heaven but also on earth. The saints say as much. The Bible and the Catholic Church affirm it.

Union, transforming union, happens in prayer. So I must learn to pray, really pray, even to pray always. To make my life itself a prayer. This is a real challenge for me. I pray the rosary. I pray at meals. I pray at bedtime. But I don't often contemplate. I don't often ask for specific guidance. My prayer life is lacking and I've got to do something about it!

It's uncomfortable seeing the failings of my prayer life thrown into relief by the example of the saints. On the other hand, I don't want to be tempted into comparing myself to "the average" and supposing myself to be doing better.

I must humbly admit that I'm having difficulty trying to detach myself from certain things, especially coffee, coke, sugary and salty foods and second helpings.

That said, here are the pitfalls of a worldly life as enumerated by Fr. Dubay, and a quote or two in counterpoint to each, calling us to detachment:
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"The human person is destined to this complete oneness of likeness with God, a oneness effected through total love that transforms the human partner into divine splendor: 'From one glory to another we are transformed into the image that we reflect', as St. Paul puts it (2 Cor 3:18). This union of likeness effected by perfect love can happen only when everything unlike and unconformed to God is cast out, for otherwise the entire image cannot be received into the soul. Therefore, says John, we must become purified of anything ungodly with no admixture of imperfection.



"St. John of the Cross details this basic rationale for detachment with an analysis of the specific harms that selfish clingings, even small inordinate ones, introduce into the soul's pursuit of the Lord... What are these harms?

1. The dimming of vision. "St. John observes that the human intellect is befogged in its natural capacity and in receiving supernatural wisdom when it clings to finite things for their own sakes. So, says John, our unredeemed desires are like a cataract over the eyes, a truth that any experienced spiritual director can verify. People who are singlemindedly and wholeheartedly pursuing God immediately understand the finer points of evangelical perfection, while equally intelligent but worldly men and women simply cannot comprehend an identical explanation. This is one reason why five hundred people listening to a Sunday homily have such diverse reactions to it, ranging from an eager enthusiasm through bland indifference to hostile rejection."