Asceticism

“He also said, ‘Some have afflicted their bodies by asceticism, but they lack discernment, and so they are far from God.’” -The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Abba Anthony the Great, paragraph 8)

As I write this, it is the beginning of Lent. Ash Wednesday was yesterday, and this saying from Abba Anthony is very timely.

Asceticism is a very fruitful and holy practice, but only if you approach it with the right disposition.

Ascetic practices are sometimes taken on because they are easy to gauge and to see what we have done, as if we are trying to prove to others how holy we are.

We are able to see the amount of sleep foregone, the amount of food avoided, the cold showers, etc. These things in of themselves can be good and beneficial, but it all depends on our disposition.

If we do these things, but our hearts are far from God, we are like whitewashed tombs.

If we only eat one meal a day, but have not The Love of God in us, we are just dieting.

This can even happen if we just keep piling on devotions and completing them like a to-do list. If our heart is far from God while completing various devotions, it is better that we would have just done one with a humble and contrite heart.

It is much better to pray one heartfelt and sincere Our Father, than to rattle off 4 Rosaries mechanically.

Joel 2:13 says to “Rend your hearts, not your garments.”

It seems like this is what Abba Anthony is talking about. There are some who afflict their bodies (rend their garments), but lack discernment and do not rend their hearts.

A synonym for discernment is sensitivity, which we can apply here. We sometimes lack sensitivity to The Holy Spirit because we are so focused on our outward asceticism.

Let us rend our hearts, and not our garments.

Saint Abba Anthony the Great, pray for us!