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The Simpleton
Posts: 2
Joined: Oct 2006
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October 05, 2006 7:46 AM
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"Out of love, not fear". Great line, Brian. I remember reading somewhere that the love that the saints had for God was sometimes so intense - violent, even - that they had to out this intensity in some physical way...
Anyone ever heard of Fr William Doyle, SJ? An Irish Jesuit who was eventually killed in Flanders during the first world war, he was a great practitioner of corporal mortification. When in Ireland, he used to creep out in the middle of a wintery night and stand up to his neck in water in the freezing pond. WOW! The really edifying thing was - and perhaps surprising to one who doesn't understand what it's all about - he had a great sense of humour, and everyone loved to be around him. I guess that's real holiness, though. If the divine isn't resting on the fundamentally human, it ain't holiness!
I enjoyed your humour, too Brian and look forward to your next article!
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But that's just a Simpleton's point of view.
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wildermuthn
Posts: 2
Joined: Dec 2006
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December 08, 2006 2:08 PM
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While I admire the discipline and restraint of the author, I think there is a real danger lying hidden here. Let me just tell a story to show what I mean.
There was once a small town which was built alongside a river. The people used to go and wash themselves in the river every morning. But one day they went out to the river and discovered that it had dried up. A courageous man - Paul - was chosen from among the young, and he was sent upstream to discover why the flow had shut off. After many months of travel, Paul came to the source of the river - a large lake. And to his great surprise, he saw two things next to it - a very large city and a brand new dam. The dam had reduced the river's flow to a trickle!
So he entered into the city and found a stranger. The stranger was a kind man, friendly, smiling, and invited Paul to lunch. Paul kept his mouth shut (he was listening carefully), and went to lunch with the stranger.
"You see, my young friend," said the stranger, talking while chewing. "Our city has become very rich lately. When I was a boy, we didn't have much money. Everyone used to have to take short showers that were very cold. But now things are different. Now we can take long hot baths, twice a day sometimes."
"And you think this is okay?" Paul said, repressing his anger.
The stranger smiled in a friendly and confused way, shaking his head. "Well," he said, weighing his words. "I'm not like them. I still take cold showers."
Paul felt relieved. The stranger wasn't like the rest of the city. Perhaps this stranger would be an ally in saving Paul's village.
"And what about the dam? Has anyone talked of taking it down?" Paul asked.
The stranger who took cold showers gave a confused look.
"What dam?"
"What do you mean, what dam?" asked Paul, heat gathering in his voice. "The dam that's destroying my village!"
"What village?"
Paul couldn't speak through his anger. When he did, all he could muster was one question.
"Why do you take cold showers?" he whispered.
The kind stranger smiled again.
"I like them."
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BP
Posts: 7
Joined: Jun 2006
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December 13, 2006 5:49 AM
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As the author, I�m happy to see that this essay has been linked to extensively, and that it has spurred conversation. That being said, I feel compelled to offer a clarification in case there has been any misunderstanding. In no way do I believe that by performing corporal mortification I am earning my justification before God. I believe that I am saved by Christ, through grace alone, by a living faith working in love. These �works� are works of God in me, by and through the Holy Spirit.
I thought I had made that clear in the essay where I wrote, �It�s my way of asking him to transform me into the son he wants me to be.� God is the one doing the transformation not me. He is the one who operates. My stepping into the cold shower is simply the equivalent of voluntarily laying on the operating table and giving God my consent to operate.
That being said, I think some people, particularly Evangelicals, are more influenced by Gnosticism than they realize. I�m referring here to the basic premise of Gnosticism that the spirit is good and matter is bad. In this light, God would never use something as crude as a cold shower to instill holiness. It�s the same skepticism that leads to the entire rejection of a sacramental system. After all, God would never be so crude as to use something like water to regenerate through baptism. He would never be so crude as to actually be bodily present in bread and wine. The problem with this is that we�re not just souls, but body AND souls. Jesus knows this. He could have simply willed back the blind man�s sight, but he chose to use mud. He simply could have willed away the people�s hunger, but he chose to multiply the loaves and the fishes. From a Catholic viewpoint, God uses all of his creation in order to achieve his goal, which is to get us to heaven.
Brian Pessaro
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troubledgoodangel
Posts: 29
Joined: Dec 2006
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March 13, 2007 8:48 AM
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Reading Brian Pessaro's "I Scourge the Body Electric" has caused me a great deal of consternation. For me, suffering is a subject so holy and profound, that any gobblegygook "Zen-like stream of consciousness" style of writing seems irreverent. I can understand that the meaning of suffering has and continues to elude even the greatest of minds. The article did struck me as having some positive value, yet my conclusion remains that it is one-sided, not exhausting the subject. When it comes to suffering, there is no room for superficiality nor trivialization. Let's do the analysis. Brian postulates that "he practices corporal mortification so that he can share in Christ's redemptive work." He does it through jogging, cold showers, and other "minor" mortifications. This is true, but it is sorely not enough, as I shall explain later! Brian gives four reasons why he engages in certain ascetic practices. First, he says, it hardens the body and it purifies the mind, "and asks God to transform him into the son God wants him to be." It is noble for the sons and daughters to want to be good children, and this is the most profoud insight in the whole article: the Fatherhood of God requires that the sons and daughters mirror Him in all things, and a healthy human instict of fatherhood is just that. The second reason Brian gives is an extension of the first. Our deprivations are for the purpose of "cultivating virtue." I fully endorse this reason: fatherhood requires strength, physical in moral. There is the need to defend the family and nation and the need to instill virtue in children, through discipline. Trying to be more like God certainly serves that purpose. A great caution is here in place, for evil is known to use suffering also! The third reason Brian indulges in self-negation, is "to be liberated from evil." This again is a complementation of the reasons that preceded, if adequate cautions are observed. To be like God is to hate evil (Prv 8:13; 2 Tm 2:19), and to be like God is to be virtuous. The last reason Brian adduces in favor of mortification is that "it builds perseverance." Another valid and important insight indeed, for avoidance of evil demands a strong will to do good, and perseverance is important in this regard.
But here comes the inherent difficulty of Brian's analysis: while Brian makes an excellent case for the value of asceticism (which incidentally all major religions practice), he entirely misses the more important subject of suffering as cross - the hallmark of Christianity! And yet, when it comes to human suffering, the meaning of the cross is so crucial, that its omission thereof devalues the article! I am not an apologist of Hans Urs von Balthasar (on that, see my article "A Painless Christianity?," in Studies in Spirituality 16/2006, Brandsma Instituuut, ed. Peeters - Bondgenotenlaan 153 - B-3000 Leuven, Netherlands), but in deference to his amazing intellect, I will say what I mean with his words: "the personified sacrifice, in which at the same time the riddle of suffering, of being despised and rejected, becomes Light, [makes sense only] as a vicarious suffering of the just 'for the many' (Is 52:13 - 53:12). In this Light, the Cross becomes the most important key to the meaning of the apparently meaningless - the innocent suffering" (paraphrased from www. Godspy.com, "Hans Urs von Balthasar, "The Cross, for us"). This is how important the aspect of the cross is for Christians! We suffer for we want to be like Christ, and through Christ, like the Father ... we suffer because we need the Truth! St. Edith Stein, the great mistic of the cross, understood this better than anyone when she said: "la sofferenza e la morte di Cristo continuano nel suo Corpo Mistico e in tutte le sue membra. [...] forse la Provvidenza Divina usa la sofferenza per liberare chi e oggetivamente incatenato" (cf. Waltraud Herbstrith, Edit Stein - Wege zum inneren Stille, Frankfurt 1978). We need this Light that comes to us from innocent suffering, "this light that penetrates the greatest depths of human suffering and dying, [...] this Spirit that casts out evil spirits with Himself" (Balthasar, op. cit.)!
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