ABNEGAZIONE. — Disposition to sacrifice oneself for others, disinterestedness put into practice through renunciation of personal advantage.
1. The term does not exist in the classical languages; in decadent Latin abnegatio, among rhetoricians and grammarians (Arnobius, Priscian), means negation. In ecclesiastical Latin abnegatio sui (St. Jerome) means denying oneself, “an idea unknown to the Romans and untranslatable into classical Latin” (H. Goelzer, Nouveau dictionnaire latin-fr., 5th ed., Paris n.d., p. 9).
An exclusively Christian expression and ethical concept, a. is founded on the well-known saying of the Savior (Mt. 16:24; Mk. 8:34; Lk. 9:23): “Si quis vult venire post me, abnegat semetipsum et tollat crucem suam cotidie.” Ἀπαρνεῖσθαι ἑαυτὸν is the synthesis, in paradoxical form, of conversion or μετάνοια, whose end (dedication to God) is supremely positive.
Commenting on this text, St. John Chrysostom observes that the Christian, rather than deny his faith, must be ready to suffer martyrdom and follow Jesus Christ unto death. St. Gregory the Great insists on spiritual mortification in a threefold form: renunciation of sin; renunciation of everything that leads away from the perfection of charity; spiritual conformity to Christ crucified for the salvation of souls. In his commentary on Mt. 16:24, St. Thomas demonstrates that these various meanings of the term derive from its primordial sense. A. is not precisely a special virtue; it is not found in the enumeration of the virtues studied by St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃ). It is, however, a general disposition to practice various virtues in order to combat self-love and egoism, and to attain perfect love of God and neighbor. Acts of a. therefore proceed from charity, which commands and inspires all acts of humility, meekness, penance, and patience that involve a sacrifice of our interests for the glory of God.
2. Foundation. As a creature essentially subordinated to God and to the plan of his providence, man must not make himself the center, but must regard himself as a means for attaining the common good, subordinating himself entirely to the interests of the whole. (St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃ, q. 26, a. 3; cf. 1, q. 60, a. 5; cf. P. Rousselot, Pour l'histoire du problème de l'amour, Münster 1908, pp. 23 ff.; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, L'amour de Dieu et la croix de Jésus, I, Juvisy 1930, pp. 111 ff.; J. de Guibert, s. V. in DSp, I, col. 103).
On the other hand, by truly loving the higher part of himself, man loves his Creator still more, and ceasing to will his own perfection would be equivalent to turning away from God.
This foundation of a. also establishes its limits—something the Quietists failed to see: on the one hand, they neglected all mortification, and on the other, they spoke of sacrificing eternal salvation love (v.), wholly disinterested. We cannot sacrifice our salvation, nor the means necessary to attain it, since this would mean sacrificing not only hope but also charity itself, which tends to glorify God eternally. Indeed, it follows that every sacrifice made for a proportionate motive, out of love for God, will be compensated by the sanctifying graces that God will grant.
3. Necessity. A distinction must be made between the a. necessary for every Christian in order to avoid mortal sin and reduce the number of venial sins, and that necessary to remove voluntary imperfections and to strive effectively toward the perfection of charity, given the exalted nature of the supreme precept of the love of God, toward which every Christian must aspire according to his particular condition.
A. and mortification are therefore both necessary because of the effects of original sin, the consequences of our personal sins, the infinite height of the supernatural end, which is God himself, to be possessed eternally, and, finally, the duty to imitate Jesus crucified in order to cooperate with him in the salvation of souls. To attain perfection one must possess, if not the practice, at least the spirit of the three evangelical counsels, that is, the spirit of detachment. Above all, the mortification of the dominant vice is necessary.
A. is therefore a fruit of the love of God already sufficiently strong to impose such sacrifices upon us, and its generous practice is indispensable for attaining heroic love and true holiness, impossible without the holocaust. This is shown particularly by St. John of the Cross, although he views sacrifice less under the negative aspect of destruction than under that of liberation leading to perfect love.