Taking Up the Cross Daily by Praying with Our Senses

Taking Up the Cross Daily by Praying with Our Senses | Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

On the Role of Mortification in the Christian Life

The term “mortification” has become increasingly less common in contemporary discussions of the spiritual life. One might say it is now nearly absent from such discussions. We hear about someone being “mortified” when they are humiliated, or embarrassed. And yet, the Christian practice of mortification is as old as the gospel, and has always been a standard component in Christian spirituality, even if less so of late. The Apostle St. Paul confides to the Christians in Corinth, “Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).1 Mortification is a dying to self, a form of self-denial. It involves the offering up of suffering, a very traditional Catholic practice.

In his papal encyclical, Spe Salvi, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI included a brief discussion on “offering up” suffering, specifically on “‘offering up’ the minor daily hardships that continually strike at us like irritating ‘jabs,’ thereby giving them a meaning … In this way, even the small inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaning and contribute to the economy of good and of human love.”2 Christian life, including family life, as well as religious life, is filled with many such “irritating jabs.” One online Catholic blog, Parenting Mortification, is devoted to looking at the many sufferings that arise in the ordinary married and family life of Catholic parents, and learning to turn those into opportunities to sanctify them. Our Lord instructed his Apostles: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). But what exactly are mortifications, and how can they be of benefit to the interior life?

Mortifications can be passive or active, but they can also be corporal or interior. Passive mortifications are when we “offer up” the difficulties, challenges, and other forms of suffering that come our way unlooked for, e.g., an illness. Active mortifications are those we seek out in order to deny ourselves, and take up our cross daily. Although the concept of corporal mortification might conjure up bloody images of extreme penances, it simply refers to any form of denial or suffering that affects the body, including the common cold passively embraced, or actively abstaining from meat on a Friday, or on Fridays during Lent. Sometimes, the criticism of active mortifications may be heard, along the lines of, “life has more than enough suffering of its own, why actively seek out more?”

Certainly, an excessive emphasis on mortification can represent a warped view of the Christian life. Mortification does not exhaust Christian spirituality, but it does have its place, and an important place at that.

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