Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/675

 THEOLOGY

615

THEOLOGY

Apostle extols the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, for whom he has suffered the loss of all things, count- ing them but as dung, that he may gain Christ. Of the numerous testimonies of the Fathers we only quote that of St. Augustine, who says: "Finis ergo noster perfect io nostra esse debet; perfectio nostra Christus" (P. L., XXXVI, 628; cf. also "In Psahn.", 26, 2, in P. L., XXXVI, 662). In Christ there is no shadow, nothing one-sided. His Divinity guarantees the purity of the model; His humanity, by which He became similar to us, makes the model attractive. But this picture of Christ, unmarred by addition or omission, is to be found only in the Catholic Church and, owing to her indefectibility, will always continue there in its ideal state. For the same reason, the Church alone can gii.-e us the guarantee that the ideal of the Christian life will always remain pure and un- adulterated, and will not be identified with one par- ticular state or with a subordinate virtue (cf. Zahn, 1. c, p. 124). An unprejudiced examination proves that the ideal of Catholic life has been preserved in all its purity through the centuries and that the Church has never failed to correct the false touches with which individuals might have .sought to disfigure its unstained beauty. The individual features and the fresh colours for outlining the living picture of Christ are derived from the sources of Revelation and the doctrinal decisions of the Church. These tell us about the internal sanctify of Christ (John, i, 14; Col., ii, 9; Heb., i, 9; etc.). His life overflowing with grace, of whose fulness we have all received (John, i, 16), His life of prayer (Mark, i, 21, 35; iii, 1; Luke, v, 16; vi, 12; ix, 18; etc.). His devotion to His heavenly Father (Matt., xi, 26; John, iv, 34; v, 30; viii, 26, 29), His intercourse with men (Matt., ix, 10; cf. I Cor., ix, 22), His spirit of unselfishness and sacrifice, His patience and meekness, and, finally. His asceticism as revealed in his fa-stings (Matt., iv,"2; vi, 18).

B. Dangers of the Ascctical Life. — The second task of ascetical theology is to point out the dangers which may frustrate the attainment of Christian per- fection and to indicate the means by which they can be avoided successfully. The first danger to be noticed is evil concupiscence. A second danger lies in the allurements of the visible creation, which occupy man's heart to the exclusion of the highest good; to the same class belong the enticements of the sinful, corrupt world (I John, v, 19), that is, those men who promulgate vicious and imgodly doctrines and thereby dim or deny man's sublime destiny, or who by perverting ethical concepts and by setting a bad example give a false tendency to man's sensuality. Thirdly, ascetics acquaints us not only with the malice of the devil, lest we should fall a prey to his cunning wiles, but also with his weakness, lest we should lose heart. Finally, not satisfied with indicat- ing the general means to be used for waging a victo- rious combat, ascetics offers us particular remedies for special temptations (cf. Mutz, "Ascetik", 2nded., p. 17 sqq.).

C Means for Realizing the Christian Ideal. — (1) Prayer, aboveall, in its stricter meaning, is a means of attaining perfection; special dev-otions approved by the Church and the .sacramental means of sanc- tification have a special reference to the striving after perfection (frequent confession and commu- nion). Ascetics proves the necessity of prayer (II Cor., iii, .5) and teaches the mode of praying with spiritual profit ; it justifies vocal prayers and teaches the art of meditating according to the various methods of St. Peter of Alcantara, of St. Ignatius, and other saints, especially the "tres modi orandi" of St. Ignatius. .\n important place is a-ssigned to the examination of conscience, and justly so, because ascetical hfe wanes or waxes with its neglect or <'areful performance. Without this regular practice, a thorough purification of the soul and progress in

spiritual life are out of the question. It centres the searchhght of the interior vision on every single action: all sins, whether committed with full con- sciousness or only half voluntarily, even the negli- gences which, though not sinful, lessen the perfection of the act, all are carefully scrutinized (pcccata, offensiones, negligenlw; cf. "Exercitia spirituaha" of St. Ignatius, ed. P. Roothaan, p. 3). Ascetics distinguishes a twofold examination of conscience: one general {cxamen generale), the other special {examen particulare), giving at the same time direc- tions how both kinds may be made profitable by means of certain practical and psychological aids. In the general e.xamination we recall all the faults of one day; in the particular, on the contrary, we focus our attention on one single defect and mark its fre- quency, or on one virtue to augment the number of its acts.

Ascetics encourages visits to the Blessed Sacra- ment {nsdtatio sanctissimi), a practice meant espe- cially to nourish and strengthen the divine virtues of faith, hope, and charity. It also inculcates the vene- ration of the saints, whose virtuous lives should spur us on to imitation. It is plain that imitation cannot mean an exact copying. What ascetics proposes as the most natural method of imitation is the removal or at least the lessening of the contrast existing between our own lives and the fives of the saints, the perfect- ing, as far as is possible, of our virtues, with due regard to our personal disposition and the siu-round- ing circumstances of time and place. On the other hand, the observation that some saints are more to be admired than imitated must not lead us into the mistake of letting oiu- works be weighted with the ballast of human comfort and ease, so that we at last look with suspicion on every heroic act, as though it were something that transcended our own energy and could not be reconciled with the present cir- cumstances. Such a suspicion would be justified only if the heroic act could not at all be made to har- monize with the preceding development of oiu- interior hfe. Christian ascetics must not overlook the Blessed Mother of God; for she is, after Christ, our most sublime ideal. No one has received grace in such fulness, no one has co-operated with grace so faithfully as she. It is for this reason that the Church praises her as the Mirror of Justice (speculum justi- tice). The mere thought of her transcendent purity suffices to repel the alluring charms of sin and to inspire pleasure in the wonderful lustre of virtue.

(2) Self-Denial is the second means which ascetics teaches us (cf. Matt., xvi, 24-2.5). Without it the combat between spirit and flesh, which are contrary to each other (Rom., vii, 23; I Cor., ix, 27; Gal., v, 17), will not lead to the victory of the spirit (Imitatio Christi, I, xxv). How far self-denial should extend is clear from the actual condition of human nature after the fall of Adam. The inclination to sin domi- nates both the will and the lower appetites; not only the intellect, but also the outer and the inner senses are made subservient to this evil propensity. Hence, self-denial and self-control must extend to all these faculties. Ascetics reduces self-denial to exterior and interior mortification: exterior mortification is the mortification of .sensuahty and the senses; interior mortification consists in the purification of the faculties of the soul (memory, imagination, intellect, will) and the mastering of the passions. However, the term "mortification" must not be taken to mean the stunting of the "strong, full, healthy" (Schell) life; what it aims at is that the sensual passions do not gain the upper hand over the will. It is precisely through taming the passions by means of mortifica- tion and self-denial that life and energy are strength- ened and freed from cumbersome shackles. But while the ma.sters of asceticism recognize the necessity of mortification and self-denial and are far from