We’ve been looking at ways we deepen our connection to Christ’s Ascension in our earthly spiritual life, with wisdom from St. Catherine of Siena among others. Allow us a brief digression… those fun-loving crazies at the World Economic Forum (WEF) famously proclaimed their plan/scheme/nightmare that “you will own nothing and be happy.”
As is most often the case, lunatics tap into a kernel of truth and then run with it in new and stunningly destructive ways. In this case, the WEF loonies have tapped into the fact that, left to our own devices, we are not good at governing ourselves and moderating our desires.
That’s a reasonable observation. But their unreasonable conclusion is that we should turn ourselves over to them and entrust them with providing for our every need. In some circles this is considered a god-complex.
At the other end of the WEF spectrum, and yet strangely aligned with it, is our materialistic society that says we must have everything fine-tuned to our every desire. One small example – have you noticed how many different varieties of M&M’s there are these days (and, of course, “pride” M&M’s…)? It’s candy-coated madness.
Now, let’s put all this in the context of the ascension.
Any hot-air balloonist will tell you that the easiest way to take flight is to get rid of extra weight (we’ve never actually had this conversation with a hot-air balloonist, but we’re reasonably confident they’d say something like that).
And that’s also true in the spiritual life.
It’s hard to lift our spirit, to ascend to Christ in prayer if we’re distracted and laden with baggage and tethered to earthly things.
We’ve been looking at St. Catherine’s imagery of Christ as a bridge, that let’s us pass safely over the tempestuous seas of life.
She teaches that the first step onto that bridge is to detach ourselves from worldly desires and allurements.
She actually had a slightly more direct way of putting it, “Oh! fools and madmen, delay no longer to come out of the mud of impurity, for you seem like pigs to wallow in the mire of your own lust.”
The Saints weren’t ones to mince words – they loved their neighbor too much for that. St. Catherine, inspired by God, desired for everyone that nothing should come before their relationship with God.
The great Saint might offer an authentic Christian alternative to the WEF slogan – “you will be attached to no earthly thing (so that you can attach yourself to God) and be happy.”
As we’ve noted before, a simple every-day way to grow in detachment is by saying “no” to some of the endless micro-adjustments modern life offers us. Go without the radio in the car. Don’t put the hazelnut creamer in the coffee. Don’t fine tune the shower to just the right temperature. In moments of down time – don’t let our mind wander to petty thoughts about people in our life. And so on.
These little acts of denying our base instincts allow our spirit to soar above our fallen bodily nature, and we will find it easier to advance along that bridge, and to keep our mind on Christ and heavenly things – to ascend, as it were.
Ascension blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith