True Friend and spouse

Translated from the original by Ana Giménez.

SELF-DETACHMENT (2)

VIRTUES

I´ll quote a couple of specialists so that we can have more criteria to understand virtue and detachment:

Detachment  “is choosing God as an option, becoming our only valuable asset and put other options into perspective, just  valued with their connection with Absolute good” definition by Secundino in “Ser cristiano según Santa Teresa.”  (To be Christian according to Saint Teresa)

F. Malax´s opinion: If our starting point is the unique Absolute, who is The God of Jesus Christ, the rest is secondary. We shall start by living the experience of God´s great love:

“Let us now come to the detachment which we must practise, for if this is carried out perfectly it includes everything else. I say “it includes everything else” because, if we care nothing for any created things, but embrace the Creator alone, His Majesty will infuse the virtues into us in such a way that, provided we labour to the best of our abilities day by day, we shall not have to wage war much longer, for the Lord will take our defence in hand against the devils and against the whole world. Do you suppose, daughters, that it is a small benefit to obtain for ourselves this blessing of giving ourselves wholly to Him, and keeping nothing for ourselves?” (The Way of Perfection 8.1)

It´s about having a complete freedom, as the giving of our heart to “our true Friend and Spouse” is the cause of “that freedom” from any relation of dependency. ” (The Way of Perfection 9.1); “For we are so miserable and so much attracted by earthly things that only one who realizes that he holds some earnest of the joys of the next world will succeed in thoroughly abhorring and completely detaching himself from the things of this; for it is through these gifts that the Lord bestows upon us the fortitude of which our sins have deprived us. And a man is unlikely to desire the disapproval and abhorrence of all, or the other great virtues possessed by the perfect, unless he have some earnest of the love which God bears him and also a living faith.” (The Life 10.6)

The level of detachment will differ for everyone according to their personal circumstances, it´s not the same for everyone nor the time it takes us to attain that inner and outer freedom. She gives us some examples: “I refer to such things as not caring if people speak ill of us, but being more pleased than when they speak well; holding our own reputation in little esteem; cultivating detachment from our kindred and, unless they be persons of prayer, not desiring converse with them but finding it wearisome.”(The Life 31.18)Freedom without ties, including the excessive care for our health (The Way of Perfection 10.5) or for ourselves (F.Malax, In Dictionary of Saint Teresa)