In this episode, we dive deeply into the mystery of the Incarnation and how we are meant to relate to Christ. Drawing from a profound quote by St. Augustine, we explore how Christ made the things we fear losing entirely worthless by depriving Himself of them. We examine what it truly means to be poor in spirit, how to navigate worldly dignities, and the Christian response to injustice. Ultimately, echoing the wisdom of St. John of the Cross, we are called to radical detachment—assigning true worth only to God and aligning our lives perfectly with His divine will.

Key Topics Discussed:

  • The mystery of the Incarnation and God's perfect wisdom.
  • St. Augustine's contrast between worldly desires and Christ's choices.
  • Understanding true poverty of spirit in our daily duties.
  • Responding to injustices as a Christian witness.
  • St. John of the Cross and the call to detach from worthless things.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello there. Welcome to this week's episode of Midnight Carmelite. This week I wanted to talk about how we relate to Christ, what that means, and how, when we look at Christ's life, we need to focus on his words and his actions revealing the mystery of God. I am going to read this quote from Augustine I came across. It is really brilliant. It says, "Although God heals souls in all sorts of ways through many gracious circumstances ordained by his marvelous wisdom, he has chosen none better than the wisdom of God himself, that is, the only begotten Son, consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, who deigned to take on our human nature completely. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."

Let's just stop here before I keep going. Augustine here is talking about how there are many ways God heals souls through these circumstances ordained by his marvelous wisdom. God knows how to provide and order all things to the good. But the best way in God's wisdom is the wisdom of God himself. In other words, the best thing to order you to God is the wisdom of God himself, that is the only begotten Son, consubstantial and coeternal with the Father. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That is so important here. The Incarnation.

Augustine goes on saying, "People were avidly seeking riches and paying court to selfish desires, and Christ chose to be poor. They coveted dignities and honors, and Christ refused to be made a king. They thought earthly progeny a great blessing, and Christ had no wife and family. They arrogantly shrank from insults, and Christ bore every kind of outrage. They judged injustices to be intolerable, but what is a greater injustice than the condemnation of the just and innocent one? They viewed bodily punishment with horror; Christ was scourged and tortured in many ways. They were afraid to die; Christ was sentenced to death. They held crucifixion to be the most shameful way to perish, and Christ was crucified. He made everything that we are afraid to be deprived of worthless by depriving himself of it, and he overcame everything we are afraid to face by embracing it."

This is what Augustine says. Sin is simply wanting what he rejected or avoiding what he accepted.

How does this relate to the spiritual life? This is a fantastic summary of the spiritual life. Notice what Augustine is doing here. He is setting up a contrast. He is saying, on the one hand, people were avidly seeking riches and paying court to selfish desires. How did Christ respond? He chose to be poor. There are people listening who may say, wait a minute. My duties and obligations in state in life require me to provide for my family. The key is, poor here is saying that you need God despite however much money you have. In other words, you are poor, blessed are the poor in spirit. If you are avidly seeking riches and paying court to selfish desires, your riches are consuming you and you are not being poor like Christ was poor. Coveting dignity and honors. How many people refuse a dignity and honor today? I am sure there are people, but I can't think of one. But they wanted to make him king, he left. Having children is a great blessing, it is. But Augustine says Christ had no wife and family. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have a wife and family if you are called to it. There again, Augustine is merely pointing out that if you make these things the highest good, if you want only those things and you don't want Christ, then you will not do well. Let's put it that way.

How about this? They judged injustices to be intolerable, but what is a greater injustice than the condemnation of the just and innocent one? He tolerated his own condemnation, the contradicting condemnation, the case at the time from the Pharisees saying that he was a blasphemer and from the Romans he was declaring himself to be a king. Obviously he refused both of these. He simply just said he was the Son of God. And he was killed for it. How many times do we judge injustices as intolerable? Does that mean we just ignore injustices? No. That is certainly not what you do. There are times when you have to stand based on your state in life and what God is calling you, you have to stand against injustice because it is a witness. Jesus was standing against the injustice by going in front of Herod, going in front of Caiaphas, going in front of Pilate. He didn't say, I'm not answering you because you have no authority over me. He said to Pilate, you only have authority over me because it is given you from above. Augustine gives us a lot to think about here on how we respond to injustices in our life.

I could keep going through the rest of it, but I just want to point out his line where he says, "Christ made everything that we are afraid to be deprived of worthless by depriving himself of it." There are all these things we are afraid of. What if this happens, what if that happens? He has shown them worthless because he didn't give himself those things. He lived according to God's will. He loved God. That is not the whole of it because the mystery of Christ is an infinite mystery, you can always learn from Christ. But I think that is one of the key takeaways. We are so afraid of being deprived of things that are actually worthless and we are not assigning worth to things that we shouldn't allow ourselves to be deprived of, which is virtue, and living according to God's will and not living a self-centered life but living a Christ life. Finally Augustine says, Christ overcame everything we are afraid to face by embracing it. Instead of being afraid to lose the things that are worthless, Christ embraced the lack of these things that we are afraid to lose.

It aligns exactly with John of the Cross. Detach, detach, detach. Look at as worthless the things that are worthless, look at God as the thing that matters most, and align your life to God's will for you in your own life so that you can truly be a son or daughter of God. That is it for now and I will see you next time.