Bishop Challoner's Meditations - August 19th

ON THE MORTIFICATION OF THE INTERIOR

Consider first, that as the business of mortification in general is to reform the whole man, and to retrench all that is evil and vicious in us, or that might disqualify us for that union with God, by divine love, for which he made us, and gave us these immortal souls, by tying down our hearts and minds to created objects; so that kind of mortification in particular ought to be most diligently exercised by a Christian that refines, polishes, and reforms our interior, in which we ever carry about with us the image of God, and in which he delights to reside, provided he finds it in a proper condition to receive and entertain him, that is, provided he finds it mortified. O my soul, what ought we not then to do to qualify ourselves for so great a happiness as this, of having God with us, and of being interiorly united to him! In order to this, thou must observe well all the irregularities which thy inward powers and faculties are liable to, that thou mayest retrench them by mortification, and so purify thy interior. Believe me, this mortification of the interior is an exercise far from difficult, but withal far more necessary for thee, and far more acceptable to God than any corporal austerities whatsoever.

Consider 2ndly, what those irregularities are of thy inward powers and faculties that stand in need of being retrenched by mortification. Alas! if thou wilt but give thyself the leisure to study well what passes in thy own interior, and to know thyself, thou wilt find thy understanding liable to pride, self-conceit, self-sufficiency, presumption, a variety of empty curiosities, and many errors of dangerous consequence in practice; such errors I mean as oppose the maxims of the gospel and represent things in false lights, and weigh them in false weighs, so as to influence the poor soul to prefer the temporal before the eternal. Thou wilt find thy judgment liable to be rash and precipitate, and quite clouded with the exhalations that arise from thy passions and self-love. Thou wilt find thy memory liable to many vain wanderings and evagations, ever full of empty things, and forgetful of God. Thou wilt find thy imagination ever dissipated in the pursuit of worldly toys, vain schemes, or sinful objects, and all thy affections, appetites, and desires, strangely bent upon evil, and averse to everything that is painful or laborious. See, my soul, what a piece of work is here cut out for thee, and how much thou hast to mortify in thy interior, to qualify it for a union with God!

Consider 3rdly, that amongst the powers of the soul, that which most of all stands in need of being mortified is the will – as the will is, or should be, the mistress of the rest; and is obliged to keep them all in order, which she can never do, if she herself be disorderly. Hence the Holy Ghost admonishes us by the mouth of the wise man, Eccles. xviii. 30, 31, ‘Go not after thy own lusts, but turn away from thy own will; if thou give to thy soul her desires, she will make thee a joy to thy enemies.’ Hence also he tells us, Prov. xxix. 15, ‘The child that is left to his own will bringeth his mother to shame.’ Because this will of ours, when indulged, is capable of hurrying us away to all that is evil. and therefore we are called upon in the gospel to hate our own soul, (animam suam,) that is, our own wills in this world, if we hope to be happy in the next. For the fire of hell, says St. Bernard, can burn nothing but our own will.

Conclude to apply thyself seriously to this most necessary mortification of thy interior, and more especially of thy own will and desires. This mortification is to be exercised, first, by denying to thy own will whatever it craves contrary to the will of God; secondly, by accustoming thyself in things indifferent often to contradict thy own will, and never to do anything merely to gratify thy own inclinations; thirdly, by curbing, even in things that appear to be good, that eagerness and hurry which nature, passion, and self-love are apt to prompt thee to; and setting before thy eyes, and quietly following on these occasions the will of God, and not thy own.