God wishes us to do Penance: Self Denial

A Reflection by Fred Schaeffer, OFS (Oct. 1995)

All Souls Day reminds me of a word that seems to be lost in our vocabulary today: self-denial. I've been thinking a lot about that word lately, knowing I have an obligation to practice it, but I haven't been very good at it. "The proof of love is in works of self-denial, and this proof of devotion is something God demands of all His workers." The uncontrolled ego is a powerful enemy. One need but look at TV, read or listen to the news, and there one finds numerous examples of 'ego out of control. Self-denial is the path to controlling our egos, and also is the path to an increasing love of God. God's greatest commandment You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind... that can only be accomplished when you abandon yourself to Jesus... when you deny yourself... and when you die to yourself. Our Secular Franciscan Rule is a beautiful way of life, but unless we practice self-denial, that way of life is but an illusion. We also need to practice humility. I see humility as the strength to recognize that the "I" in me is less important than the "you" in me. Without Jesus, I am nothing.

St. John of the Cross wrote:

• To arrive at having pleasure in everything, desire to have pleasure in nothing.
• To arrive at possessing everything, desire to possess nothing.

Whenever we assert ourselves by erroneously thinking we have all the answers, we'll quickly find out that we really don't have any answers at all. Humility is such a tough subject to write about, you first need to have it to tell others about it, and the minute you assume that you do, you find out you haven' t got it at all. Humility is one of the m0st distinctive of Christian values: by being humble, we acknowledge our place in God's kingdom, that we are very small indeed. Jesus said: Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 11 :29), so humility rescues us from sinful pride. We all need to have a little self-love. None of us can get very far unless we learn how to feel good about ourselves, but this self-love needs to be tempered with humility and self-control. Bossuet puts it another way: "When God desires a work to be wholly from His hand, he reduces all to impotence and nothingness, and then He Acts. " "St. Jerome says: 'Outside of Christ, I am powerlessness itself." St. Francis referred to Jesus as "My God and My All." As we pursue that daily conversion of the soul, which our Rule refers to, you begin to realize that what St. John Vianney said is also true. He said: "The life of prayer is the one big happiness on this earth!" Prayer isn't possible without humility.

Let our prayer be: "My God, I thank You for having willed that I should be nothing in Your sight. I love my humiliation and my nothingness. I thank You for having taken away from me a few satisfactions of self-love, a few consolations of the heart. I thank You for every deception that has befallen me, every ingratitude, every humiliation."

I can hear you say -it's too tough, too difficult (Hey, I've said that many a time) -but when you pray about self-denial, you will find that you desire it more. When you pray about humility, you will find that when the occasion presents itself, you will remember the prayer and follow His way. When you feel insecure, tempted to follow yourself rather than the One who is calling you, think about our beloved St. Francis ... his life was a continuous example of humility and self-denial. We are blessed to have his Rule of life to follow. FSS Note: Sentences in quotes (in Self-Denial sharing) were taken from Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, OCSO. Abbey of Gethsemany ©1946.