so there's the penances that you choose
and there's the penances that choose you
[Music]
happiness father Mike Smits and this is
essential for sense during any season of
Penance any season of fasting any season
of mortification typically we choose our
thing right so here's Lent and you we
were called to prayer fasting almsgiving
such a good thing as a way of what like
the end goal of the whole thing is to
become like Jesus the end goal of the
entire thing is to have a heart like
Christ's to live in this world as the
image of Jesus in this world is to open
our hearts up to loving God more opening
our lives up to loving each other more
there's a video we talked about
disciplined or generous that it's good
to be disciplined it's even more
important to be disciplined in the act
of generosity or in the act of in the
way of love but one of the things that
has to happen every time we do penance
is I say no to my own will and I say yes
to God's well I mean that's that's
ultimately what's what's really going on
that's the generosity part like I'm
saying no to me that discipline part and
yes to God's will yes to God's heart yes
to God's God got himself and that's the
that's the generosity part or the love
part or the whole thing so we pick a
thing right so I'm gonna give up this
for land trauma to give up that for the
other thing or I mean on Fridays I don't
do this
great super good awesome keep on doing
that those are what you might call
active mortification so a little little
glossary woman um a definition moment a
mortification it comes from
mortification now don't know if you've
ever heard that word if someone's
mortified that means like I'm dying here
right so cuz more de morte mortification
comes from the Latin root or you know
Spanish weirdo right more ear is to die
so if someone is muerto they are dead so
mortification is a death in fact it's
not just any tactics to death to self so
again someone is not mortified meaning
so embarrassed that I wish it was dead
or feel like a goodbye but to mortify
one's self or to enter into a spirit of
mortification is not hating the self
it's being willing to die to the self
and so Lent is a season of active
mortification we choose our penances
right super good great great thing to do
Friday's penance day they have
mortification great thing to do any
season in your life you might choose
mortification
great thing to do highly recommend 10
out of 10 but at the same time that's
active mortifications there's such a
thing as passive mortifications what I
mean by that are the kinds of things
that I can either resist the kind of
inconveniences that can make me grumpy
the kind of things I didn't get my way
that can make me more selfish or are the
kind of things that like okay that's any
convenience I'm going to submit my will
I'm gonna die to myself in order to say
God use this moment so here's and here's
here's a difficulty here's a here's a
suffering I didn't want I didn't choose
this one it came to me like it didn't
choose me obviously I didn't choose it
it chose me
and so I'm instead instead of letting
that make me cranky or grumpy or
complaining about it what I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna say God use this I'm gonna
here's the words I'm gonna intentionally
and joyfully receive this passive
mortification this this opportunity to
die to myself now clarification because
I know people will ask this question
they'll say so basically you need to
suffer injustice what if someone's doing
something evil against another or
someone's doing something evil against
you I'm not recommending that you just
like roll over I mean there is such a
thing as like the the Catholic doctrine
of self-defense or other defense like
you can defend other people too so I'm
not saying that let's tolerate any kind
of injustice what I'm saying is um
someone ahead of you is driving a little
slower than you
you can either I can either resent that
fact I can I can give in to my anger
about it or I can say okay god I'll
joyfully and intentionally receive this
and use it God use it and so I'm dying
to myself a little bit here because I
would like it to be other than it is so
I'm not saying tolerating injustice or
letting turning a blind eye to things
that are evil I'm saying is this is a
small inconvenience or a larger
inconvenience this is a small suffering
or a larger suffering in my life that I
can't change it's been given to me and I
can either resist it hold on to my will
or I can let it mortify myself I can let
it I could provide me the opportunity to
to die to myself in order to live for
God those
acid mortifications they are so powerful
they're so powerful because acting weird
if occation is like okay I'm gonna give
up blank for Lent I'm gonna do this
thing for Lent
like that's great but I've chosen it so
I got there's a there's an element there
where I'm like okay I'm still in charge
the passive mortifications are powerful
because I'm not in charge at all all I'm
in charge of is my response all I'm in
charge of is God help me with your grace
at this moment to joyfully and
intentionally simply receive this in
means to receive this moment of trial to
receive this suffering so that you can
use it you know because we unite our
sufferings as Christ right
st. Paul says in letter to the
Colossians he says I rejoice in my
sufferings for your sake for my body I'm
making up for what is lacking the
sufferings of Christ for the sake of his
body that is the church that that st.
that Christ's suffering is sufficient
all sufficient it's it's it's enough but
God allows us to participate by offering
our sufferings and uniting them to
Christ's sufferings for the salvation of
the world for the father to be glorified
every little opportunity for that
mortification to die to self and say yes
to the Father is amazing
the passive mortifications I think are
even more incredible even more powerful
cuz I didn't choose it
I'm simply intentionally and joyfully
receiving it and offering it to the
Father so for Lent but for life passive
mortifications are pretty much a little
way to go we're all this here the center
presents my name is father Mike godless
you