Asceticism
Definition- Abstinence from various worldly pleasures, with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals.
HIstory of Word- originally the adjective “ascetic” derived from the ancient Greek term askesis which means training or exercise.
This is not originally a Christian movement. The Greeks had similar views in Cynicism and Stoicism. But some would credit Jesus with being an Ascetic (usually the Ascetics) because of his itinerant lifestyle and apparent lack of possessions. Personally, it seems we have a lack of information on this issue and most of the people that hold that view do so based on inference. Certainly people have lived an Ascetic lifestyle as their sacrificed life to God. One might say that Jesus asked His followers to life an Ascetic lifestyle if they where to follow him. The Rich Young Ruler comes to mind as well as Matthew, who left his lucrative tax booth. There are the disciples that left their life of Fishing, like Peter and Andrew, to become Fishers of Men.
Throughout history there have been influential Christians whom lived this ascetic life. The largest community in church history were the Dessert Fathers. Some of the key people in that movement were St. Origen, St. Jerome, and St. Inatius. But we cannot forget Chrysotom. Nor shall we forget St. Francis of Assisi who vowed that there should be no one poorer than him.
Today, we have an American version of this movement which seems to be a little ironic since living in America itself is almost impossible not to be rich and one could argue that it is impossible to live ascetically. Shane Clayborne is one of the most popular, but there are many missionaries coming out of the U.S. that have a conviction that they must work in poverty to serve Jesus better. (thesimpleway.org)
For us, I believe we need to follow a simple principle as we navigate this difficult and challenging disciple of the Ascetic life. Those that do I believe find that they needed to Abstain to Abide in Jesus. But, there are many examples in the Bible of followers of God that did not feel the call of asceticism. So how must we live. The answer is that there is no global answer for all Christians. We must individually seek the Lord’s wisdom and call on our life. For those that have the tough call to Abstain we must remember Jesus’ admonition to Peter when Peter thought it important to talk about the disciple whom Jesus loved. You Follow Me!
Articles and books used for research:
The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
The Bible
No comments:
Post a Comment