ABANDONMENT. - I. ASCETICA. - 1. Notions. - Abandonment (virtue, spirit, act of abandonment) is an attitude of the spiritual life of high perfection, whose nature, degrees, exercises and deviations have been the object of study especially since the 16th century. Abandonment in the active sense is defined as: "complete conformity to the good pleasure of God in all things, springing from love and dedication."
The ancients spoke of resignatio (Imit. Christi III, 15. 17. 37; IV, 8), that is, the surrendering (as it were, restoring into the hands) of one's own will to God.
The nature of abandonment in its specific characteristics is revealed in comparison with the proper concept of the neighboring or kindred virtues of resignation, acceptance, acquiescence, conformity, indifference, from which it differs by delicate but essential nuances. Resignation denotes the "consequent" acceptance of conditions or events that one undergoes, whereas abandonment is a spontaneous attitude of "antecedent" acceptance. It is, however, something more than simple acceptance, which implies a position of a quasi-contracting party and therefore a certain sense of equality and not of subordination. Acquiescence implies a prior slight interior discussion, which is not present in abandonment, whereas conformity signifies a "state" that nevertheless seems to presuppose a previously rather laborious sort of adjustment. Indifference, on the contrary, is a preliminary disposition to abandonment, preparing the soul to receive all divine ordinances without offering resistance, but it does not convey the concept of abandonment, which denotes a positive donation of oneself, full and ineffable, to God and to His will apprehended as the only wholly good will (C. Gay, De la vie et des vertus chrétiennes, II, Paris 1883, pp. 372 ff.). Nevertheless St. Francis de Sales identifies abandonment with perfect indifference.
At the basis of the virtue of abandonment lies the doctrine of the twofold causal principle of Christian perfection, that is, of the two wills, of God and of man (cf.
Council of Carthage XVI, cann. 3-5; Denz. U. 103-105; Council of Orange II; Denz. U. 176-80; Council of Trent, sess. 6, can. 4; Denz. U. 814, and chap. 7; Denz. U. 799). The divine will, infinitely holy, identified with infinite wisdom, has the initiative and the principal part in the work of the sanctification of the creature; this creature can do nothing better than adhere completely to whatever is desired or disposed by this most high will. St. Vincent de Paul rightly observes: "Perfection consists in so uniting our will to God's that His and ours are no longer anything but one same willing and not willing; and whoever excels most in this point will be the most perfect" (Entretiens, ed. Coste, vol. IX, p. 318).
The object of abandonment is all the divine wills, expressed both by the voluntas beneplaciti and by the voluntas signi, though with a special accent on those of the divine good pleasure. The divine will of good pleasure is that by which God wills in an absolute manner that the things which truly will be should be. In this sense all events fall under His will, not excluding sin, which although forbidden and disapproved by God, is left materially as a possible event, for the goods that will follow from it (St. Augustine, De libero arbitr. III, 5; PL. 32, 1276). The signified will of God, on the other hand, is that by which God prescribes all that manifests His will, even if its execution does not follow, such as the commandments, precepts, counsels, inspirations.
Abandonment is exercised especially regarding the hidden divine dispositions past, present and future; conformity to the manifest signs of the divine will merits rather the name of obedience (Lehodey, I, 4). The objects of indifference proposed by St. Ignatius of Loyola — "desolation and consolation, sickness and health, poverty and riches, contempt and honor, a short life and a long life" (Exerc. Spir., Principium) — are also proper objects for the exercise of abandonment in God.
The theological foundations of this virtue are in the teaching and examples of Jesus Christ, who recommended it for temporal and spiritual things (Mt. 6, 25-34; Lk. 11, 9; 12, 31; 22, 42; Mt. 26, 39, etc.) and practiced it throughout His mortal existence, which He chose to close with the incomparable words: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Lk. 23, 46). St. Peter and St. Paul also inculcate the same doctrine (I Pet. 5, 7-8; Rom. 8, 28). It is founded on the dogma of God's Providence with its two essential points: that nothing happens in this world except by the sovereign will of God, according to the phrase of St. Augustine: "Non ergo fit aliquid nisi Omnipotens fieri velit, vel sinendo ut fiat vel ipse faciendo," and that this will is infinitely good and beneficent, so that it accomplishes its beneficent designs even through the evils of life and the very evil wills of wicked men.
2. Practice
The perfect practice of abandonment is certainly a synthesis of all the theological and cardinal virtues (Bernies, Amour et abandon, Paris 1912, pp. 156 and 162). Bossuet finds in it, in a single act, the union "of the most perfect faith, the highest hope and the purest and most faithful charity" (Instruct. sur les états d'oraison, tr. I, IX, n. 18). A. Piny maintains that abandonment represents the most perfect practice of the pure love of God, because it embraces the renunciation and total detachment from self in order to entrust soul and body completely to God (Le plus parfait, chaps. 7-19). Therefore St. Francis de Sales calls abandonment "the virtue of virtues: cream of charity, odor of humility, merit of patience and fiat of perseverance" (Entretiens II). All the Masters of spirituality place it among the points of perfection that lead souls to great holiness (Surin, Catéchisme spirituel, I, p. 4, col. 8). Its principal fruits are freedom, joy, and peace of spirit.
The exercise of abandonment in the sense of making the soul accept all that God wills, as He wills it and because He wills it, is to be inculcated in all Christians. Such practice has ever more perfect degrees in proportion to the donation of self. It is presupposed in the highest mystical states. As a habitual state it is reached by few, not because God does not call souls to it, but because few correspond to such grace. In the literary history of spirituality various formulas and prayers are known that express the spirit of abandonment (cf. J. B. Saint-Jure, Connaissance et amour de J. C., III, 1, chap. 8, § 9; J. P. Caussade, L'abandon à la Divine Providence; etc.).
3. Deviations
False abandonment is the exaggeration consisting in leaving to God the care of all that concerns man, whether in the temporal or in the spiritual sphere. In the management of material interests, improvidence immediately brings its perceptible consequences, which serve to dispel the illusion. But far more dangerous are the deviations in the spiritual order. The Church has condemned the doctrines that insinuate absolute passivity and inertia in prayer or in the spiritual combat. Thus one cannot accept one's own sins before the event, nor one's own damnation. False abandonment is also indifference regarding the virtues and one's own perfection, in the sense taught by Bernières (v.) condemned in 1689, or the claim to perceive in oneself the divine motion before acting (v. QUIETISM). The danger of such errors is found in all mysticism of dubious quality, which exaggerates the passivity of the soul (cf. Pius XII, encyclical Mediator Dei).
Historically, false abandonment manifested itself in the West among the heterodox Beghards and the Brethren of the Free Spirit of the 14th century, and among the alumbados (v.) of 16th-century Spain, remotely influenced by the pantheistic-predeterministic doctrines of the Arab-Islamic tradition (Qur'an XXXV, 9; XXXVII, 94). False abandonment is found in the Lutheran doctrine of trust in the imputation of Christ's merits, and in the doctrine on prayer and the spiritual life of the Quietists and Semi-Quietists, particularly the Spanish (Molinos), the Italian (Falconi, Petrucci), and the French (Lacombe). Famous with regard to exaggerated abandonment is the controversy (v. AMORE PIRO) between Bossuet, Fénelon and Mme Guyon, which ended with the condemnation of Fénelon's work Maximes des Saints (1699). Against Quietism, and especially against the errors of Molinos (v.), the fathers Paolo Segneri, Giuseppe Agnelli and Gottardo Belluomo fought in Italy. For the Christian East, v. ESICASMO; PALAMAS.
Bibliography21 works
Arnaldo M. Lanz
II. LAW
In the strict sense it is the unilateral juridical act by which someone detaches himself from a thing with the intention of renouncing definitively his own dominion over it. Like the derelictio of Roman law, its principal effect is the loss of ownership; whence the abandoned thing becomes res nullius and is susceptible of acquisition by occupancy.
This, however, is not the only meaning of the word a.; it is also used as a synonym of renunciation, desistance, abdication, withdrawal, according to the nature of the object to which it refers.
In state law, particular importance attaches to the juridical figures of the a. of land, of a ship or aircraft, of a spouse, of a domestic domicile, as well as to the offences of a. of an infant, of minors or persons incapable, of animals, of public office, of a post.
In canon law, mention should be made of: 1) the a. of residence, which is considered by law (CIC, can. 188, no. 8) as a tacit renunciation of office on the part of the cleric, and assumes under determinate conditions (cf. can. 2381) the character of a true and proper crime (v. RESIDENZA); 2) the a. of the ecclesiastical habit (v. ABITO ECCLESIASTICO); 3) the a. of office, for which is provided (can. 2399) the penalty of suspension a divinis for a time to be determined from case to case by the ordinary, in relation to the gravity of the case; 4) the a. of instance, which occurs in accordance with can. 1736 when for a two-year period, in a trial of first instance, or for one year, in a trial of appeal, the parties to the cause perform no procedural act.