ASCESI

ASCESIS. - A methodical effort to repress the lower tendencies of human nature in order to progressively attain spiritual perfection.

OUTLINE:

I. Nature

II. Means

III. Forms

IV. Analogies

V. Ascetic Deviations.

I. NATURE

The term, unknown in classical Italian (it is lacking, e.g., in the great dictionary of Tommaseo), which prefers *ascetismo*, is now admitted in philosophical-moral discourse, in the sense of prolonged and austere labor directed toward the attainment of virtue.

*ἀσκησίαι*, from *ἀσκέω* (in the New Testament only in Acts 24:16), among the Greeks signified physical exercise, gymnastic and athletic training (Plato, Thucydides, Xenophon), then intellectual and moral effort to attain wisdom and virtue (the same authors, Isocrates, Demosthenes, the Sophists, Cynics, Stoics), and finally religious practice (already in Isocrates, but chiefly in Philo). In these last two united and fused senses, the term became familiar to Christian spirituality, beginning with Clement of Alexandria, who gave it a general meaning (*vita di fervente pietà*: ἀσκησίαι γνωστικὴ, “life of the perfect Christian”), and Origen, who adhered to the narrower sense (continence), more common among the Greek Fathers.

Christian asceticism is a way of life deriving from faith or adherence to Christ; it is the active exercise of methodical and progressive efforts directed toward the acquisition of virtue in following and imitating Christ. It implies a method or discipline in the total and daily labor, almost an art of rigorous training, and has as its end the interior perfection in conformity with the divine Model. This accords with the Christian moral conception, which presupposes a “negative” aspect (arduous struggle for liberation from sin and self-mastery) and a “positive” element (perfection). In the strict sense, asceticism is limited to the negative aspect, as “spiritual combat” (q.v.), but Catholic authors usually intend *ascetism* in a broader sense, and while applying the term primarily to repressive practices aimed at purification (and reparation), they also include within it the itinerary of ascent to God. For the degrees of the ascetical life, see CHRISTIAN PERFECTION; THREE WAYS.

The specific characteristics of Christian asceticism can be reduced to four: 1) It derives, as from its first source, from God as the cause of grace, and refers to God as the ultimate perfective end of all human activity; this distinguishes it from every asceticism of Stoic, Pelagian, or any other character that tends to measure moral perfection by human criteria. 2) It is realized through voluntary, personal, vital action aimed at developing all that is best and noble in man; this distinguishes it from the asceticism of other ancient religions, which is superstitious, magical, and external. 3) It is permeated by Christ, whose sanctifying, efficacious, and exemplary influence intrinsically shapes it; this gives it an unmistakable aspect, explains its irresistible vitality, and justifies the apparent paradox of the thirst for suffering. 4) It recognizes in the authority of the Catholic Church its primary and infallible directive norm.

Asceticism is necessary for moral life. Man experiences within himself a struggle between sense and spirit, especially in the force that drags the former outside or against the direction of the latter. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). This dualism, though natural to man’s original constitution, is in fact an imbalance caused by original sin (q.v.), which deprived the will of full mastery over the sensitive part. The opposition is further aggravated by actual sin and still more by the resulting evil habit or vice. Hence true and lasting virtue, which is progressive supernatural moral rectitude, is not a spontaneous good for man, but the fruit of reaction and conquest. St. Paul dramatically describes the ever-renewed warfare between flesh and spirit, the virulence of concupiscence (q.v.), and the effort imposed on the Christian to restore the disturbed balance by painfully stripping himself of all that belongs to the “flesh of sin” and putting on the new man modeled on Christ (Rom. 7:14–24; 13:12–14; Col. 3:5–8). Hence the Christian must be ready for the struggle like a fully armed soldier (Eph. 6:10–18), like an athlete trained in harsh exercises who strikes his enemy (himself) to the point of blood (1 Cor. 9:24–27) and is wholly intent on the goal (Phil. 3:12–14).

Continuous effort at self-renunciation (q.v.) is indispensable to moral life in order to attain likeness to God. Such is the explicit divine command. The practical side of revealed doctrine coincides with the obligation of moral purification realized in life, which is not limited to what is indispensable for the morality of action, but aims at developing the maximum energy to reach the highest moral summit (Matt. 5:48).

In the Old Testament, besides numerous prescriptions regarding abstinence from certain meats and parts of animals, washings and purifications (see RITUAL PURITY), public fasts were imposed (Lev. 23:27–33; Num. 29:7–12) and private fasts practiced, especially in public calamities (Judith, Esther). The penitential spirit was manifested by dressing in sackcloth and ashes, and the Nazirite vow (q.v.) was held in honor; the extreme sobriety of the Rechabites (q.v.) was praised; an ascetical character was also presented by the “schools of the prophets” in a common life of devotion. The practices of mortification aimed at greater interior purity, as attested by their relation to the holiness of God (Deut. 14:1; Joel 2:12–13) and the exhortations of the prophets (Isa. 58:1–9).

Jesus imposes asceticism as the “narrow way” leading his follower, laden with his cross (Matt. 16:25), to the Heavenly Father, who regenerates us gratuitously by communicating divine life to us, with whom we must be in constant relation of dependence, but more still of filial piety (q.v.), in which supernatural charity (q.v.) predominates. Love for Jesus, an essentially assimilating force, then impels the Christian to reproduce Christ the Suffering One within himself. Finally, Christian asceticism imposes itself by its social value, by the beneficial influence it exerts upon the whole family of believers (see MYSTICAL BODY).

A characteristic of evangelical asceticism is self-denial (q.v.), in the joyful acceptance of purifying suffering, preferring Christ to the dearest persons (Matt. 10:37; Luke 9:23; 14:26), sacrificing oneself and one’s members and even life for Him, amid the continual persecutions that await his followers (Matt. 10:16, 36; Mark 8:35). Hence the need for constant vigilance (Luke 12:35 ff.), both against interior dangers (the flesh) and exterior ones (the world).

Evangelical asceticism is, therefore, very demanding. It is conceived first of all as interior religiosity, without which there is no true prayer, fasting, or love of neighbor (Matt. 6:1–33). Its ideal norm is the perfection of the Heavenly Father, to which we conform by following His will (Matt. 5:48; 7:21); its immediate norm is Christ, whom we must reproduce by remaining united to Him as the branches to the vine (Mark 8:34; John 15:4–5); its reward lies in the Beatitudes (q.v.).

II. MEANS

Christian asceticism is total and unified. It works to purify the whole person so as to elevate him to supernatural likeness with God: the spirit is freed and at the same time elevated, while the senses—sealed within the sensible—are rectified and subjected to the spirit. Hence one may speak of a twofold asceticism, exterior and interior, even though they remain inseparably linked, each requiring conditions provided by the other.

Considered from the external side, asceticism aims on the one hand to restrain and moderate the tendency toward the sensible, and on the other to render the body more docile to the spirit. Its principal means is mortification (v.), to which are joined modesty, fasting, abstinence from certain foods and drinks, vigils, and various bodily macerations with instruments such as scourges, chains, and hairshirts. Most effective in purifying the heart and securing the independence of the spirit are actual poverty (v.) and chastity (v. EVANGELICAL COUNSELS). Means directed toward separation from the external world in order to foster recollection (v.) are solitude and silence, practiced in various forms and degrees.

Christ does not condemn earthly goods as intrinsically perverse, yet he imposes total detachment—even if gradual—upon those who would follow him (Lk 14:33), and he brands riches as obstacles to the kingdom of heaven (Mt 19:23–24; Lk 8:14). For this reason he prescribes for the evangelizers of the kingdom of God a very austere manner of life (Mk 6:8) and absolute poverty.

Yet asceticism must always be chiefly interior, employing purificatory and elevating means that center on humility and prayer. Essentially Christian and supernatural is humility (v.), which replaces self-love (v.) with gradual self-denial, even to abandonment (v.) in God and spiritual childhood (v.); it combats the countless vices that spring from pride (v.), especially the thirst for glory and domination, while illuminating the soul regarding its dependence on God. From this comes obedience (v.), which, by correcting the illusion of self-sufficiency, subjects the will to the will of God as the supreme and exclusive norm.

Prayer, especially as mental prayer and meditation (v.), is the essential breath of Christian asceticism. Besides its impetratory efficacy, it gathers the spirit, purifies the intellect from ignorance, and illumines it with the truths of faith, preparing it to transcend natural knowledge of God and initiating it into contemplation (v.), with the consequent impulse toward detachment of heart and energetic development of the will as a motive power. To meditation is joined the examination (v.) of conscience, the foundation of the moral introspection necessary for regulating one’s relations with God and determining the plan of struggle against sin.

III. FORMS

The most characteristic forms of Christian asceticism through the centuries are martyrdom, virginity or continence, and monasticism.

Martyrdom (v.) constitutes the heroic ideal of the 2nd and 3rd centuries: the martyr, a copy of the patient Christ, appears as the perfect disciple. Moreover, the whole Christian life, in its struggle against the passions and in its steadfastness in faith, is regarded as an aspiration and almost an equivalent to martyrdom.

Virginity (v.) in particular is almost equated with martyrdom. From the 2nd century onward, virgins and continent persons furnish material for the apologists, and in the 3rd and 4th centuries a vast literature flourishes on the merits and practice of virginity, to which apostolic activity was joined.

Monasticism (v.), whether in the anchoritic form in which it arose in the mid-3rd century or in the cenobitic form into which it evolved from the 4th century onward, channels the entire ascetic current codified by the experience of the saints and summed up in the Rules (v.) of religious institutes. All ascetic means are coordinated toward moral sanctification: from manual labor to solitude and macerations, from liturgical and contemplative prayer to the arduous life of apostolate. The common foundation consists of the evangelical counsels embraced through the three vows (obedience, chastity, poverty), and the common life of prayer and mortification.

To the mass of the faithful the Church inculcates the ascetic life by imposing abstinences, fasts, and prayers. Yet full ascetic formation is accomplished individually, under the guidance of confessors and spiritual directors, through practices and methods adapted to the temperament, needs, and capacities of each.

IV. ANALOGIES

Comparisons and proclaimed analogies between Christian asceticism and ascetic currents developed within paganism have often been drawn. Setting aside those asceticisms foreign to any contact with Christianity (v. BUDDHISM; HINDUISM; THEOSOPHY), we shall take a brief look at those which, according to “independent” historical criticism, are sometimes linked or placed in causal relation with Christian asceticism.

In Greek and Roman paganism externally ascetic practices are not unknown: penitential processions, fasts, abstinences, washings, some examples of chastity (the Vestal Virgins), and sexual restrictions in cultic contexts. Yet the vital element of asceticism is lacking: the effort toward an inner moral perfection.

In the “mystery” religions one notes a mystical sentimentality converging toward a certain union with the deity; ascetic practices are therefore intensified, especially to attain the rank of the perfect “initiated.” Common to these are washings, fasts, abstinences, and temporary prohibition of sexual pleasures. Without denying the religious sentiment, which is enveloped in often crude symbols, we observe—besides the naturalistic origin of these cults and the dubious morality of the “vision of the mysteries”—the absence in these obscure practices of an adequate ascetic content. Union with the deity is not conceived as an intimate participation and transformation in it, but rather as a passport to penetrate the fearful regions of the afterlife; the ascetic trials or purifications are merely conditions so that initiation into sacred things may not displease the deity.

The various philosophies with a moral and religious orientation offer something more elevated: from differing premises and by diverse paths they seek an inner perfection of man and arrive at a higher concept of the relations between man and the deity.

Pythagoreanism—or rather Neopythagoreanism, which spread from the 1st century B.C.—starts from the premise (common, like the theory of liberation and metempsychosis, to Orphism) of a constitutional dualism in man: a Dionysian (good) and a Titanic (evil) element, and seeks the liberation of the good element through self-overcoming until the cycle of existences is closed. As means it prescribes: philosophy, the effort toward liberating wisdom from error, moderating the passions and the sensitive part so as to subject them to reason; abstinence from certain foods, resignation in life’s trials, examination of conscience, and silence, rigidly imposed during the “novitiate” preceding acceptance into the Pythagorean “community.”

In Stoicism, the summit of human perfection is to live according to the demands of nature, which is reasonable, upright, and free. Stoic asceticism aims at personal independence; it consists above all in judging correctly the impressions produced in the soul by things, in accordance with the relations to moral reason, and in practicing an unperturbed indifference (apatheia) toward all goods and evils. For its pure ethical naturalism, for the “apathy” that kills feeling and fosters antisocial individualism, Stoic asceticism is in spirit opposed to the Christian, although many of its wise counsels—on the contempt for worldly goods, the repression of the passions, constancy in the face of pain and death, meditative reading, solitude—have been taken up by Christian writers.

The noble ideal animates the author of Neoplatonism (Platon, Porfirio), who moves within the tradition of Platonic spiritualism and in conformity with its emanationist metaphysics. Its aim is union with God (Being, the One) through ecstatic contemplation. It is essentially a simplifying effort: to rid oneself of the servitude of the sensible and to surpass the rational world in order to reach the summit of intelligible intuition; hence the indifference or contempt for bodily pleasures. But, beyond its theological presuppositions, this ideal opposes the Christian one due to its intellectualistic exclusivism, which leads it to neglect the affective dimension, and due to its impractical unrealism, unaware of human frailty.

In general, in the ascetic conceptions of paganism, the theology of love (v.) is lacking—the love that descends from God to man and ascends from man to God.

To Jewish asceticism are linked the Therapeutae (v.) and the interesting movement of the Essenes (v.), with their common life, community of goods, manual labor, prayer, prolonged fasts, study of sacred books, celebrated for their silence, solitude, and obedience.

V. DEVIAZIONI ASCETICHE

In the course of the centuries, deviations manifested themselves now by excess, now by defect.

In the early centuries, the Montanists (v.) formed a rigorist movement that barely tolerated marriage and multiplied austere fasts. Gnostics and Manichees, professing the intrinsic malice of matter, rejected the legitimacy of marriage and imposed universal abstinence from meat and wine; the Encratites (v.) or abstainers were particularly notable. The Council of Gangra (340-43) condemned the false asceticism of Eustathius (v.), and the Council of Ephesus (431) condemned the ascetic manual of the Messalians (v.). The Manichees (v.) formed conventicles that renounced possession of earthly goods. In the Middle Ages, pseudo-asceticism reappeared in the Albigensians. The Waldensians (v.) and the Apostolic Brethren “demanded absolute poverty”; the Flagellants (v.) preached public bloody flagellation.

Among the enemies of asceticism in the 4th century are Helvidius, Jovinian, and Vigilantius, who chiefly attacked virginity. Closer to our own time, the Quietists (v.) sacrifice asceticism to pure passivity.

The Protestants of Luther (v.), due to the theory of the moral uselessness of good works, declared themselves at the outset estranged, indeed opposed, to asceticism. But Calvin (v.) imposed on all an almost monastic asceticism. Gradually, however, asceticism gained ground among all the “Churches” of Protestantism, at least as a practical necessity (v. BUCHMANISMO; METHODISM; WESLEY, JOHN), up to attempts (from the 19th century) at communal religious life, but without vows or irrevocable commitments.