“And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name … will inherit eternal life” (Mt. 19:29)
As much as I like to poke fun at the Jesuits (who doesn’t?), there are a few practices of theirs that have transformed my spiritual life. The most impactful for me, however, has been St. Ignatius’ principle of detachment.
Detachment, also referred to as indifference, is the principle that we should abandon all of our own desires in favor of God’s will. This may seem like an easy enough principle on the surface, but the way of applying it to our lives is what becomes challenging.
When Ignatius is talking about detachment from desire, he doesn’t just mean the bad ones. It is common sense that we should try to rid ourselves of bad desires; detachment asks something more of us than that. Detachment invites us to give up our good desires right alongside the bad ones.
We give up good desires as well because we should ultimately desire not what we want, but what God wants for us. Our lives are filled with good desires that, sadly, conflict with each other and are not all possible. Many good Catholic men will experience simultaneously the holy desire for the priesthood or religious life right alongside the holy desire for marriage.
Our job in discernment is to conform our mind and will to the perfect plan of God for our lives. We are not being asked to look deep within ourselves and find whatever hidden clues God may or may not have left us through our desires. Detachment recognizes that as flawed and fallen human beings we desire all sorts of things, both good and bad, for reasons that may not truly be for the greater glory of God.
Our desires might be directed toward something that is truly good, but they might not be for the right reasons. It is for this reason that we are called to detach ourselves from all of our desires so that we may call upon God’s guiding help to determine His will. It is not merely enough to do what is right, we must do it for God’s sake and not our own so that we don’t become prideful.
If we surrender all of our hopes and desires to God, He will direct us to what is best. God knows the best path for our lives, so if we hand over all of our desires to Him, He is sure to give back to us what is best. Furthermore, if I desire something for a personal reason rather than for God, then giving it up allows God to transform my desire for it from a natural to a supernatural source.
It is not merely a vocational strategy, but also a way of growing in every area of the spiritual life. I’ve seen in my own life how fruitful this practice can be if I truly meditate upon it. At the root of every vice, there is a disordered attachment to something, sometimes good. Jealousy comes from a disordered attachment to people or things, pride an attachment to one’s honor, and greed an attachment to worldly goods.
Detachment is an ongoing process that takes a lifetime. Although I’ve seen myself and others grow tremendously through this process, it sometimes feels like playing whack-a-mole; as soon as one decision is made or a vice is overcome, another one pops up. It isn’t a magic cure, but it is an effective way to align ourselves with the will of God and see more clearly those ways that we are still attached to this fallen world. May we, by the prayers of St. Ignatius, unite our desires with the Divine will and set our eyes ever on our Lord Jesus Christ.
James Pritchett is a Sophomore studying History and Classics with a deep affinity for his native land, the Golden State. Despite being the most recent lover of Catholicism on the Torch staff, he is the C101 editor and his main interests consist of reading Dostoyevsky, playing devil’s advocate, and correcting people on niche theological heresies.
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