Fourth Stage of Spiritual Development: Self-Mortification

I must confess that I am only somewhere at the third stage of spiritual development; I believe that I have some degree of mastery over the doctrine. The subsequent stages are merely what I have read in the books.

Further advances in spiritual development must advance beyond the mastery of the doctrine. Understanding the doctrine can only help us house faith in our minds and instill the desire to be virtuous, and will propel us toward the right direction. Further increase in virtue will require a harsher examination of conscience, and the requisite humility to recognize one’s wrongs is attained in humbling oneself to understand the doctrine. Those who have faith, those who perceive, and those who understand the doctrines of the faith at least to a shallow level would be partaking in abstaining from certain pleasures and increasing one's humility. But cultivation of higher degrees of virtue requires a more radical act: self-mortification.

St. Thomas Aquinas classifies three parts of the soul: vegetative, sensitive, and rational  (Summa Theologica Q78A1). Since God is likewise of rational nature, and since the rational part has dominion over all other operations of the human soul (Q29A3), we also must aim to reflect God in His perfect rationality as beings created in His image in order to advance in our spirituality. When an individual has achieved god-like rationality, one holds mastery over one’s own passions and impulses. Our distorted passions and impulses are what makes us so frail in character. Ridding these distorted things and orienting them toward temperance is a step toward godliness.

The temptations of the modern world makes it difficult to cultivate a higher level of virtue. In particular, temperance. St. Thomas Aquinas argues for the unity of the virtues. The virtues are interconnected, and when one lacks a single virtue, one lacks all. We may categorize virtues separately, but it is only for the sake of ease of communicating. In this understanding of the virtues, a flaw in one moral character will, in one way or another, lead to the failure of another.

For instance, imagine an intemperate college activist. This activist may think that he is doing justice by protesting injustice of oppressors. By consequence, he might think that he possesses the virtues of charity and justice. But, at times, his temper would lead him to misconstrue others’ statements in order to win an argument and lash out at those he disagrees with. In misconstruing another’s statement, he exacted injustice and uncharity. By the same act, he was being prideful for he cared more to win the argument than to seek the objective truth, lacking the courage to admit to himself that he might not be wise enough to handle the situation. In this instance, this college activist’s intemperance lead him to fail the three other cardinal virtues. Those observant of human nature would see that this hypothetical person I described is close to reality. We see too often displays of morality are merely self-gratifications.

It is a wise strategy, therefore, to focus on one area of moral character and hope for other aspects to follow suit. Increase in temperance is the most accessible to us for the temptations of the flesh is where the vast majority of sin derives from. Those who have mastered the doctrine see the reasons why the Christian doctrine is so prohibitive of so many activities. It is so for temperance is one of the cardinal virtues.

Abstaining from sexual pleasures (which may vary from kissing to the sexual act itself, depending on the situation), abstaining from pleasurable foods, musical notations that artificially bring about pleasurable emotions, and abstaining from sights that are pleasurable are all included in the exercise of self-mortification. The process is much different from a person going on a diet or working out in order to have better sex. Such acts are done in order to derive more pleasure from the flesh. Self-mortification is done in order to increase the willpower to refuse pleasures of the flesh and direct one's rational part of the soul to higher things. Those of high rational faculties, however they may arrogantly tout their intelligence, are liable to have their reason follow their ill-wrought passions. We see many examples of high-functioning psychopaths justifying their wrongdoings with logic, do we not? A person freed of passions learns to direct one's passion in accordance to correct Reason, the Divine. As they are better suited to have their reason directed toward the Divine, they would thus come closer to completing their theosis, toward a living sainthood. In achieving their living sainthood, they would be in a mystical unity with God during their time on earth.