You Can Do This
The movie, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, starts with the main character’s military helicopter being shot down. The movie then flashes forward to Jack in rehab. The doctor has some pain medication for him, but she asks him to wait two minutes before taking them. When asked why, she replies with “so that you know you can.“
I liked this little exchange. While Jack Ryan is suffering from his injuries and the rehabilitation, the doctor asks just a little more from him. While not in the movie, I imagine that she’ll ask him to wait 2.5 minutes the next time she administers his pain medication. And then 3, 5, and maybe challenge Ryan to not skip a day entirely. The point is that Jack needs to know that he is strong enough to control his wants and endure a little bit of discomfort. That is how he grows into the determined and steadfast CIA analyst throughout Tom Clancy’s books and movies.
Practicing Mortification
That leads me to thinking about the Church’s demands that we practice mortification. Mortification means subjecting oneself to self-discipline and self-denial of bodily goods. It’s more than simply not committing sin (that’s a given). It’s giving up something good for the sake of the greater good. It means giving up some comfort to honor God and to show penance for our sins.
Some classic ways we practice mortification is by fasting and abstinence, acts of charity and service, and generally doing what is good when we don’t feel like it. But there’s also a dimension of putting up with a little discomfort. The Catholic Gentleman podcast challenged listeners to practice some form of mortification every day. They mentioned small acts like turning off the air conditioner, taking a cold shower, giving up electronics, or skipping your morning cup of coffee.
This may strike us as the Church being cruel. What does a cold shower have to do with our relationship with God? Like Jack Ryan, small acts of mortification show us that we are stronger and have more control over our passions than we think. If I can tolerate a cold shower for one minute, maybe I can also resist certain temptations. If I can drive to work on a hot summer day without A/C, I’m in much better shape to resist Satan’s empty promises.
Building up Endurance
We build physical strength through exercise. Every movement in exercise actually tears muscle fibers which grow back stronger and more resilient. In the spiritual sense, mortification breaks us down slightly and allows God’s grace to build us back up. It clears out our desires for what is physical for what is Heavenly. If we are detached from our earthly passions, Satan has very little to tempt us with.
Mortification is so important in our spirituality, it’s the fruit of the Second Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary — The Scourging at the Pillar. We remind ourselves every Tuesday and Friday that God calls us to a life of purity and mortification. Like Jesus being scourged and his flesh being ripped away from his body, mortification is us ripping away our earthly desires. Keep in mind that those passions and desires aren’t necessarily bad ones. They may be good — food, comfort, quality entertainment, sleep, etc. But we need to occasionally “rip away” those good comforts and replace them with even better ones — God’s grace. We need to remind ourselves that we can do small things for God building us up to accomplish the big, saintly things.
Disclaimer
Now I shouldn’t have to say this but be smart in your mortifications. Don’t do anything dangerous. Don’t wear a parka when it’s 110 degrees. Don’t try to go extended periods of time without eating or drinking. Don’t flog yourself like you see in some movie portrayals of Christians. Mortification is about building spiritual strength over time to show that you can live for God’s Kingdom. God is not impressed by stupid stunts.