Attached

“May I never become attached to anything here below. May Love always sustain me.” (“The Forge”, at 41).

The Mother of God (Trenousa)

Recently, someone who was very young and relatively close to me passed away into eternal life.

It is a very confronting thing to have to consider life in the face of eternity.  It is one thing to think about things hypothetically and quite another to consider things in reality.  After all, we work all our lives to earn money for our families.  This seems to be a natural and essential part of life.  And yet, when we die, we do not take any of that material wealth with us.  Instead, it is all left behind.  All the money we made and the things we bought are just that – money and things – that belong to someone else.

And this has caused me to reflect on the point of life.  You see, we are called to look after our families.  That goes without saying.  There is no point in having a multitude of children and leaving them to die of starvation on the street because I do not exert some effort to care for them to the bets of my ability.  And yet, there is such a temptation to become attached to the things that I earn and get to support my life on earth.

Saint Josemaria said, “May I never become attached to anything…  Ask the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and your Mother, to make you know yourself and weep for all those foul things that have passed through you, and which, alas, have left such dregs behind...  And at the same time, without wishing to stop considering all that, say to Him: Jesus, give me a Love that will act like a purifying fire in which my miserable flesh, my miserable heart, my miserable soul, my miserable body may be consumed and cleansed of all earthly wretchedness. And when I have been emptied of myself, fill me with yourself. May I never become attached to anything here below. May Love always sustain me.” (“The Forge”, at 41).

And it occurs to me today that the way to avoid attachment to material things is through love.  For where LOVE is firmly and effectively placed, that is where we are attached…  And it occurs to me that is a disordered love for material things that causes a disordered attachment to the things of the world.

And that is a terrible thing.

And I have been reflecting on that today as I have been thinking about how much love I place on material things.  After all, if I could just love my God and the people He has given to me more than I love money and things, then I would never risk attaching myself to things of this world.  And I would be so much closer to preparing my eternal soul for the next life.  And when I stop and think about that today, it seems like such a sensible thing to do – this becoming attached to God above all else…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.