RENUNCIATION (Ascetical). – Ascetical detachment from earthly goods and joys inasmuch as they hinder or retard union with God.
In evangelical doctrine self-denial (v.) is a fundamental requisite (Mt 16:24): renunciation, as a preliminary requirement, is its indispensable propaedeutic; whoever shrinks from the renunciations demanded by grace will fail to follow Christ along the path of self-denial (Lk 14:33; 9:57-62). Indeed, self-denial, “repudiation” (ἀπάγνωσις), opposed to the ascetic’s very person—i.e., to his own will, to the desire for natural satisfaction—an exercise entirely interior and spiritual, practically presupposes the corresponding renunciation of the means of satisfaction, the “abdication” (ἀπόταξις) of goods and pleasures in any way sensible.
Actual or effective renunciation is distinguished from habitual or affective renunciation. Actual renunciation includes within itself both moral separation, or dispossession (Acts 4:37), and physical separation (ἀφέσις): the latter is active when it depends upon a free determination, passive when it stems from providential order (Mt 4:20; 19:27; Heb 10:32-34). Habitual renunciation consists in the abiding readiness to perform every actual renunciation demanded by Christ (St. Ignatius, *Spiritual Exercises*, nn. 149-55).
The first degree of renunciation, necessary for salvation, is the readiness to sacrifice everything rather than commit a mortal sin. The second degree, proper to fervent souls sincerely desirous of perfection, places the person unreservedly at Christ’s disposal to fulfill every desire of His. The third and supreme degree meets the most burdensome renunciations with joy and spiritual élan: St. Ignatius attributes these degrees to humility by reason of the will to self-abasement and subordination that inspires them (*Spiritual Exercises*, nn. 164-67).
Renunciation, an exercise of the “hatred” enjoined by the Gospel (Lk 14:26), does not imply contempt for the intrinsic value of created goods but rather a spiritual indifference (v.) of will toward them in comparison with the will of God loved “above all things,” together with the mortification of the passions: one cannot be ready to abandon what he continues to desire and will decisively. The prototype of evangelical renunciation may be seen in Abraham’s obedience ISACCO (v.), the son of the Promise (Gen 22:1-19).