Mortification

The late Bishop Fulton Sheen once remarked that countless sacrifices have been and are being made but not offered. How tragic…

Mortification is one of the prominent words that we hear during Lent. The Church wants all the faithful to practice mortification during this liturgical season, and hopefully even beyond as part of our path to sanctity. This is the practice of self-denial. In a temporal sense, it fosters virtue. On one hand, passive like the inconvenience of the noon-time heat, or going through a slow and grinding traffic jam. On the other hand, we also actively seek it all for the love of God and others.

When we do mortification actively, we are profiting from our struggles against our defects. For example, cutting down our daily coffee intake or parking our car at the far-end of the parking lot. From a natural level, it is diet and exercise respectively. However, we can elevate our acts of piety when we ask for forgiveness from the Lord who loves us, or as supplication for a loved one who is taking a major exam, or when we pray and remember our loved-ones who have gone ahead of us.

Another beautiful opportunity is to do mortification out of thanksgiving because we are always net-beneficiaries of God’s goodness even when we fall short of what he wants us to do in our mission as co-redeemers. Perhaps, refusing to be swept away by our moodiness, we smile to the very person whom at moment we don’t want to see! Is this difficult? Many even would endure pain to make themselves physically beautiful. What’s a little sacrifice for the sake of eternity?

Of this day and age, the most difficult thing to do is to perhaps turn off one’s phone for a day or two. Love is demanding. We have to be creative. St. Josemaría says, “Happiness in Heaven is for people who know how to be happy on earth.” (The Forge, 1005) Therefore, choose to be happy. Choose to be loving! In this way, we start healing ourselves from the effects of sin. Let us invest in this enterprise called mortification, always in a priestly manner– offering it to God, others, His creation, and our own selves.

The Blessed Mother will always help us to be creative in the ways of love for her Son. Let us seek her guidance always. (Johnny Sulit, Jr.)