Fr. Robert E. Kennedy, S.J.,Zen Roshi, responds to an interview question about the meaning of "emptiness" in Zen in the following manner:

When you speak and write about the Zen gift of emptiness, you exercise great care. Why is this?

"I do so because out of all of the gifts of Zen, this one is perhaps the one that is most misunderstood in the West. By "emptiness of all things" the Zen Buddhists mean the co-origination of all things; that is, nothing is separate. Let me emphasize that emptiness, as the Zen Buddhists understand it, is not a vacuum. Emptiness is all forms: men and women, mountains and rivers, moon and stars, but all seen as interdependent and integrated."

"The great fear that we often experience in life derives from our misperception of emptiness as a vacuum. But in reality, therein may lie our greatest treasure. Our misperception of emptiness is that it means isolation; but in fact it is the revealer of our greatest intimacy, our connection with everything else."(Father Robert E. Kennedy, S.J. "The Gifts of Zen Buddhism" October, 2000)

So properly understood, the term "emptiness" as used in Zen means all things are empty of separate self-being, not as in a vacuum, but as in an interconnectedness and oneness with all other forms.

In connection with Christian spirituality, "emptiness" has a different meaning. It relates to "detachment" or emptiness of the "will" in terms of possession of all things. The asceticism of such detachment is necessary in order for the will of man to unite with the Will of God.

Fr. Regis Jordan, O.C.D. tells us:

"In speaking of Christ the Way, John speaks in terms of imitation. We are to imitate Christ in all things, but especially in emptying ourselves as he did. As Christ accepted the Father's will that the way to life was through the cross, through annihilation and death, so too must we imitate Christ in this, the surest and safest way to union with God in this life and the next.(Regis Jordan, O.C.D.)

St John of the Cross explains why it is necessary for the soul, in order to attain to Divine union with God, to "empty itself" and pass through the dark night of mortification of the desires and denial of pleasures in all things:

"All the being of creation, compared with the infinite Being of God, is nothing. And therefore the soul that sets its affection upon the being of creation is likewise nothing in the eyes of God, and less than nothing; for, as we have said, love makes equality and similitude, and even sets the lover below the object of his love. For two contraries (even as philosophy teaches us) cannot coexist in one person; and that darkness, which is affection set upon the creatures, and light, which is God, are contrary to each other, and have no likeness or accord between one another. Hence it is that the light of Divine union cannot dwell in the soul if these affections first flee not away from it.

"In like manner, all the wisdom of the world and all human ability, compared with the infinite wisdom of God, are pure and supreme ignorance. For the ' wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.' Wherefore any soul that makes account of all its knowledge and ability in order to come to union with the wisdom of God is supremely ignorant in the eyes of God and will remain far removed from that wisdom. Those alone acquire wisdom of God who are like ignorant children, and, laying aside their knowledge, walk in His service with love

"And all the wealth and glory of all creation, in comparison with the wealth which is God, is supreme poverty and wretchedness. Thus the soul that loves and possesses creature wealth is supremely poor and wretched in the sight of God, and for that reason will be unable to attain to that wealth and glory which is the state of transformation in God; for that which is miserable and poor is supremely far removed from that which is supremely rich and glorious.(St John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk I, Ch. 4)

St John of the Cross teaches that the soul must mortify all its sensual desires if it is to come to simple union with its Beloved. Now this seems an impossible task for the natural man. And, all by itself, it is. It only becomes possible because, through contemplative prayer, the soul is enkindled with other and greater yearnings of a spiritual nature. These yearnings arise from the enkindling of a better love than sensual love in the soul, i.e., the love for its Beloved Spouse, the love for Jesus Christ. These greater spiritual yearnings give the soul the courage it needs to enter the night of sense, and to remain in darkness as to all things, regularly depriving itself of its desire for them all.

"For, in order to conquer all the desires and to deny itself the pleasures which it has in everything, and for which its love and affection are wont to enkindle the will that it may enjoy them, it would need to experience another and a greater enkindling by an other and a better love, which is that of its Spouse; to the end that, having its pleasure set upon Him and deriving from Him its strength, it should have courage and constancy to deny itself all other things with ease. And, in order to conquer the strength of the desires of sense, it would need, not only to have love for its Spouse, but also to be enkindled by love and to have yearnings. For it comes to pass, and so it is, that with such yearnings of desire the sensual nature is moved and attracted toward sensual things, so that, if the spiritual part be not enkindled with other and greater yearnings for that which is spiritual, it will be unable to throw off the yoke of nature[204] or to enter this night of sense, neither will it have courage to remain in darkness as to all things, depriving itself of desire for them all.(Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk. I, Ch. XIV)

This soul, having now moved to union with its Beloved, will draw ongoing spiritual strength from Him. Eventually, when the soul is properly prepared, it will be required to mortify its spiritual part, and to give up the pleasure it seeks from its desire for spiritual things, so that it will do them for love of God, rather than for its own personal pleasure. The strength it receives from the divine union with God, although it now it periodically becomes a dark purging fire, will continue to support it through this final stage of the dark night of the spirit. This latter purification of desire within the spiritual part of the natural man completes the purgative process and the soul comes to the “Spiritual Marriage” or “Transforming Union” with its Beloved. Now with “self-will” fully mortified, the soul lives in complete conformity with Jesus Christ, and experiences “the fullness” of the life of God, which is a blessed life filled with gifts of delight in the Beloved, and the joy of “Self-giving" love and charity.

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Man was created to possess a spiritual consciousness that is not alone, and could never be lonely, but is ever surrendered to,and fully penetrated by both the natural universe, and the Spiritual Other, the God of Beatific Vision, Goodness, Power, and Infinite Personal Love. This is "emptiness," human spiritual emptiness, with consciousness empty of worldly attachments and self preoccupaton, with total existential security, sharing, and satisfaction in a dynamic spiritual life based on the same principle of community as exists in the Exemplar of all community, the Holy Trinity. However, this was not good enough for us. It failed to give due recognition to our "perceived significance" as a separate individual. So, under temptation, we abused our freedom. We rejected this Community Life in favor of a "proud individualism," a separate ego-life based on self-exaltation and division from all other beings.

And the Universe rang out with man's lonely, existential cry, "I shall not serve!" -"enter Original Sin, Original Divorce, and hatred for Almighty God, i.e., hatred for the One whose very existence threatens man's spiritual pride, and Who, through ongoing spiritual warfare, exposes man's arrogance, weakness and vulnerability so that he may, like the Prodigal Son, return to the spiritual community life of eternal happiness for which he was created.

Man, however, resists such return and surrender of his proud ego to the Abundant Life of Community with God. In his loneliness and despair, he reaches out and attaches the trinkets of creation to his spirit in a futile effort to regain his lost grandeur of spirit, and claims that he is powerful, and captain of his fate and master of his soul. And the grandeur and scope of his original, natural spirit shrinks day by day, further and further down to the level of his ever constricting ego, choking his spirit under the weight of his arrogance, his worldly possessions, his loneliness, and his darkning despair:

"Invictus"

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

by William Ernest Henley

"The Council of Trent says, 'The first man, by his sin, lost for himself and for us sanctity and original justice." In Original Justice there was perfect harmony between God and the soul, made to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him, and also between the soul and the body. The passions or sensible emotions were obedient to right reason enlightened by faith, and to the will vivified by charity. The body itself shared this harmony by privilege, in the sene that it was not subject to sickness or death.'(Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, "Three Ages of the Interior Life," Mortification, p. 287)

"According to Catholic theology based on the Biblical account, the original condition of our first parents was one of perfect innocence and integrity. By the latter is meant that they were endowed with many prerogatives which, while pertaining to the natural order, were not due to human nature as such--hence they are sometimes termed preternatural. Principal among these were a high degree of infused knowledge, bodily immortality and freedom from pain, and immunity from evil impulses or inclinations. In other words, the lower or animal nature in man was perfectly subjected to the control of reason and the will. Besides this, our first parents were also endowed with sanctifying grace by which they were elevated to the supernatural order."(Catholic Encyclopedia, Terrestial Paradise)

The question of the reality of the soul and its distinction from the body is an important issue for us for with it is bound up the reality of contemplative prayer and the doctrine of a future life. Since the "Fall of Man" we are born into the world with our soul subject to the demands and dictates of our bodies. One might say, as a result of Adam's sin, we "fell" out of our spiritual center in our soul into our animal center in our bodies. Through years of prayer and ascetiscism, we hope to re-establish our center in our souls with our bodies subject to the dictates of our reason, rather than than the endless demands of our passions. When we regain our center in our soul, we regain our center in our "true self," made in the image of God, with the body in proper relation to the spiritual faculties of reason and will. Our spiritual center of our soul is where the New Man lives, and where we meet God in a Personal Relationship through Jesus Christ:

St Francis de Sales reminds us that indifference to the natural world enables us to maintain our spiritual center and to live a moritified life: "Indifference is to be practised in things belonging to the natural life, as in health, sickness, beauty, deformity, weakness, strength: in the affairs of the spiritual life, as in dryness, consolations, relish, aridity; in actions, in sufferings,—briefly, in all sorts of events.

THE SOUL

"Various theories as to the nature of the soul have claimed to be reconcilable with the tenet of immortality, but it is a sure instinct that leads us to suspect every attack on the substantiality or spirituality of the soul as an assault on the belief in existence after death. The soul may be defined as the ultimate internal principle by which we think, feel, and will, and by which our bodies are animated. The term "mind" usually denotes this principle as the subject of our conscious states, while "soul" denotes the source of our vegetative activities as well. That our vital activities proceed from a principle capable of subsisting in itself, is the thesis of the substantiality of the soul: that this principle is not itself composite, extended, corporeal, or essentially and intrinsically dependent on the body, is the doctrine of spirituality. If there be a life after death, clearly the agent or subject of our vital activities must be capable of an existence separate from the body.(The Soul, Catholic Encyclopedia, Maher and Boland)

"However, by his sin, the first man transmitted to us a fallen nature, deprived of grace and wounded. ...we must admit with St. Thomas, that we are born with our will turned away from God, inclined to evil, weak in regard to the good, with our reason prone to error, our sensitive appetities strongly disposed to inordinate pleasure and to anger, source of every type of injustice. Whence comes pride, forgetfulness of God, and egoism in all its forms."(Ibid.)

Because the nature we inherit from Adam is filled with egoism, an inclination to runaway pleasure, anger and evil, we must practice asceticism and mortification all the days of our lives, in order to curb these sinful tendencies. We are born with a nature that is turned away from worship of God, and is directed toward worship of self, another name for pride. We are unable to hear the still, quiet voice of Goodness calling us to come out from among the loud, shrill noise we all make as we participate in the rat-race spirit of the world, the spirit of competitive seeking after possessions and power, in the Name of egotistic self-love. We are unable to recognize the tender touch of the Beloved within our agitated spirit, calling us away from the never ending hatred, disputes, litigation, and competitive struggles for that one more piece of property we need to prove our worth, slay our fears, and add to our alredy excessive store of worldly wealth. Therefore, if we are ever to free ourselves from this slavery inherited from Adam, we must look for help from the practice of ascetism and the regular mortification of our runaway desires. In the beginning, our own efforts will be central to this process. As we advance in prayer and virtue, God, Himself, will provide supernatural loving power which will make asceticism relatively easy, and enable us to rapidly advance in these matters with little effort of our own.

Properly understood, Christianity is a religion of Self-Giving Love. However, that love which is "self-giving" cannot operate in a soul whose power of "will" or "love" is firmly bound-up and attached to pride of self and selfish lust after the pleasures of this world. As St Paul taught us, we must chastize the flesh so we may live by the spirit. So reasonable, not fanatical, asceticism and detachment, on an ongoing basis, must be placed as foundation stones, by our own efforts under grace, before our love can be called "Christian." Our goal is to become "empty" of self, and empty of selfish attachments which keep us from true love.

In like manner, it is a mistake and a falsehood to teach beginners in the Christian Faith, as well as the more advanced, that only love, all by itself, is required of them, since self-giving Christian love cannot happen without a foundation of self-denial and detachment from the things of this world. As Christ said, we must "lose" our life in this world in order to save it unto life everlasting. So while love is what Christianity is all about, we must always "take up our Cross and follow Jesus."

Perhaps it will aid our understanding of the need for the ascetical process if we look upon our natural life as an energy system. We are made in the image of God, and God is Love, and the pre-eminent purpose of our being was also created to be love. We were created so our natural energy, or love, would freely flow back and forth between God and us. When we choose sin, or behaviors comprising a worldly spirit, we attach or fixate some of our energy on something that is less than the Good we were created to have. Through repetition, that fixation or attachment draws more energy and becomes a "habit." The habit is accompanied by strong neural pathways which "facilitate" our habitual sinful response to events comprising our false-self life. These responses also carry a strong neural connection with certain images stored in our archives, conscious and unconsciousness.

So through Original Sin and the weakness of inherited concuspiscense, we have built a complex of energy fixations into a "false-self" comprised of a large portion of our life force, which is imbued with the "spirit of the world" instead of the "Spirit of God." We develop a "world-view" based on pride, lust, greed, runaway ambition, and hate, through the eyes of this false-self, and we are so used to it, we don't even know it exists. The real-self, for most of us, made in the image of God, and made for self-giving love, is effectively strangled by the tentacles of the false-self. And once this habitual complex of neural pathways and habits is in place, it is only with great pain and difficulty, similar to overcoming a mass of addictions, that it can be removed. It is too much for us to do in our natural strength because being enslaved by sin, or attachments, we have very little "free-energy" left in our system with which to entertain spiritual warfare against our false-self. But removed it must be in order to redirect that energy-love to God, and to restore free-flowing, and abundant "life," natural and supernatural, to our life-force system.

So since we are incapble of freeing ourselves from the false-self complex, the Merciful Spirit of God, must undertake this onerous task for us. But most of us, particularly when everything is going well, are blind to the reality of our deformed, energy-diminished lives of the proud false-self. So God sets about by His grace and certain specific negative events in our lives trying to "wake us up" to the danger we are in, and to show us that our life is a lie. The little kingdoms we have all set up to stand alone without God, short-circuit our life-force, while providing us a "shortcut" to the spiritual suffocation of despair. But as long we havn't suffered enough from the "spiritual death" we call our false-self life, and as long as as we are "too proud" to use what's left of our freedom to "seek God's help," nothing is going to change. On the other hand, once we are defeated by the consequences of the lie we are living, and once we have turned to Him, and asked for His help, He, in His mercy, will immediately respond and begin the process of gradually dismantling of our false-self so that the New Man in Jesus Christ may live in us.

Then, after this, for the Christian, all the pain, misery, humiliations, and setbacks we undergo in this life as a result of our inheritance of the fallout from Original Sin, are part of God's providential program of suffering, called "Cross-carrying," leading, through dismantling of the false-self, to "Abundant Life," natural and supernatural. This is nothing less than God's own "Spiritual Warfare" against us, or against our false-self. For His Love is a Consuming Fire, which burns away our entrenched attachments and habits of sin through the suffering borne for Him in this life, and through the Dark Nights of Sense and Spirit. And until those habits are destroyed, habits of worldly love and hate, our personalities are "cramped" and denied the vital force they need to image God as the New Man, or real-self. This real-self must be naturally energized and strengthened in order to participate in the same Consuming Fire of God's Holy Spirit, which for those purified of attachments is a torrent of delight, and to carry on the glorious, overcoming life and work of Jesus Christ. Saints are therefore, individuals living as their real-selves in the image of God, possessed by "a fullness of energy," natural and supernatural, because at some point in their lives they "surrendered" to the Consuming Fire of Transformational Love that, now flows constantly within the union of their soul and the Spirit of Almighty God.

And with this understanding, we find that Almighty God, through contemplative prayer, takes our puny efforts to control our runaway desires and concupiscense and reinforces them a hundred-fold through His Spirit. Those who enjoy such supernatural assistance realize they do very little, and are capable of very little, against the desires of the flesh. They realize that the "Power of Love" is in them making their efforts at asceticism and detachment seem incidental by comparison. They realize that fanaticism and strain are foolish in connection with asceticm and self-discipline since pride and the power of the flesh is really brought under control through God, Who is, of course, Love, and ultimately does all the "heavy-lifting" in the spiritual life. They sometimes forget, however, that one will never get to the place where God makes it easy, and Love predominates in the matter of asceticism if they havn't spent time in voluntary efforts at rational self-discipline, asceticism, and mortification of selfish desire. So while Love, Love, Love is what Christianity is all about from a postive point of view, we must alway remember that that Love cannot exist in an undisciplined, self-centered soul incapable of the self-giving which informs true Christian Love.

"Mortification is, therefore, imposed upon us because of the consequences of original sin, which remain even in the baptized as an occasion of struggle, and of struggle indispensable in order not to fall into actual and personal sin. We do not repent of original sin, which is a "sin of nature" which was voluntary only in the first man; but we must labor to rid ourselves of the withering effects of original sin, in particular concupiscense, which inclines us to sin. By so doing, the wounds of which we spoke above are healed more and more with the increase of the grace which heals and which, at the same time, raises us up to a new life. Far from destroying nature by the practice of mortification, grace restores it, heals it, and renders it increasingly pliable or docile in the hands of God."(Fr Garrigou-Lagrange, "Three Ages of the Interior Life, " p.l90)

"Thus there is continuity between ascetical doctrine and mystical doctrine?spiritual doctrine is one. Ascetical doctrine must begin by showing "the end to which spiritual progress must tend, that is to say, Christian perfection . . . in all its grandeur, according to the testimony of the Gospel and of the saints."[27] And asceticism does not cease when the soul enters into the mystical union. "To the very end the soul must remember the words of Our Lord: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily."(Jacques & Raissa Maritain, "Liturgy and Contemplation," Resources)

"The perspective of (ascetic) mortification of desires put forth by St John of the Cross is the Biblical one. All voluntary, inordinate desires must give way to the single desire of love for God. These desires are inordinate because they are not integrated into the love of God; they are thus competitors. The mortification of all desires and appetites is the hallmark of St John of the Cross and a threatening challenge for would-be disciples. But for those who meditate, it is a long term objective; for the time being they engage in the limited mortification of struggling to be more faithful to their vocation and the right use of creatures. The project of total renunciation is a reasonable objective when the soul is in the mode of contemplation."(Ernest Larkin, O.Carmel) The reason lies in this. A soul whose spirit has no strength and felt joy from God such as comes through contemplation, cannot easily give up the pleasures of sense upon which it feeds. However, once the soul becomes somewhat spiritually satisfied in contemplation, and par excellence, in spiritual union, its joy and contact with the Spirit of God gives it the strength to let go of lesser pleasures of sense, which were formerly all it had to hang on to.

"Christian Asceticism, involving mortification of desire connected with worldly attachments, is the necessary foundation upon which the spiritual life of love must be built at all stages of the Christian life. It is prompted by the desire to do the will of God, any personal element of self-satisfaction which enters the motive vitiating it more or less. Its object is the subordination of the lower appetites to the dictates of right reason and the law of God, with the continued and necessary cultivation of the virtues which the Creator intended man to possess.

"Absolutely speaking, the will of God in this matter is discoverable by human reason, but it is explicitly laid down for us in the Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, which furnishes a complete code of ethical conduct. Some of these commandments are positive; others, negative. The negative precepts, "thou shalt not kill", "thou shalt not commit adultery", etc., imply the repression of the lower appetites, and consequently call for penance and mortification; but they intend also, and effect, the cultivation of the virtues which are opposed to the things forbidden. They develop meekness, gentleness, self-control, patience, continence, chastity, justice, honesty, brotherly love, which are positive in their character, magnanimity, liberality, etc.; while the first three which are positive in their character, "thou shall adore thy God", etc., bring into vigorous and constant exercise the virtues of faith, hope, charity, religion, reverence and prayer. Finally the fourth insists on obedience, respect for authority, observance of law, filial piety, and the like."

"Thus we have, as regards mortification, the words of St. Paul, who says: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps when I have preached to others I myself should be castaway" (I Cor., ix, 27); while Our Lord Himself says: "He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matt., x, 38). Commending unworldliness, we have: "My kingdom is not of this world" (John, xviii, 36); approving detachment, there is the text, not to cite others: "if any man come to Me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke, xiv, 26). It is scarcely necessary to note however, that the word "hate" is not to be taken in its strict sense, but only as indicating a greater love for God than for all things together. Such is the general scheme of this higher order of asceticism.(T.J Campbell, "Catholic Encyclopedia," Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas)

So we can see that, although God's "law of love" takes primacy under the Christian Dispensation, mortification of desire, and practice of the virtues through human effort, are still necessary practices for Christians, as they were for Jews under the Old Dispensation. However, after we have made a sincere effort in this regard, it is well to remember that the real mortification of desire and empowering of our virtues comes from the Power of Almighty God through prayer.

In particular, the Gift of the prayer of contemplation enables us to practice self-control and virtue at levels which were unattainable prior to receiving this Gift. Therefore, there must be no ongoing excessive "strain" in the practice of a man-made, heroic asceticism, which belongs to a higher level of sanctity than that to which we have attained in our spiritual life. When the day comes that such sacrifices are asked of us, God will make it relatively easy for us to accomplish it with His Power joined to ours.

While we must avoid all occasions of sin, and obey all the Commandments, and do what we realistically can in terms of self-mortification, we must realize that the final stages of mortification of desire, along with capacity to love our neighbor, as well as our enemies, will come only through the Holy Spirit Power available when our spirits are united in contemplative union with the Spirit of God. It will be only through God's Love, attracted by our humility and our confidence in His Help coming through prayer, that we will receive the necessary Power to accomplish the ultimate ascetical tasks which will usher in the New Man in Jesus Christ.

The primary goal of asceticism is to "empty" our spirits of desires and attachments to illusions and possessions that fill us with spiritual riches. When we are empty, we are poor in spirit. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven!" For our spirits were created in a poverty or purity meant to be filled by the Infinite Wealth of Almighty God. However, through Original Sin, we lost the union with Eternal Joy, for which we were created, and began to look around for substitute pleasures and artificial spiritual possessions to fill our emptiness. In the process, we created our false-selves to keep away the pain of living without God. And so it is today. Our voracious desire keeps us on a never ending quest to accumulate possessions to assuage our spiritual pain, and to satisfy a neediness and poverty that can only be filled by Infinite Love.

Asceticism and "mortification of desire" are different names for the same process. They are intended to eliminate the Old Fallen Man whose spirit is materialistic, worldly, proud, and self-centered. In his place they are meant to create a spiritual poverty, an emptiness, a humility, a meekness, a purity, and a void within our spirits. Then, God can fill this emptiness with a different kind of Spirit creating the New Man.

The New Man, created through asceticism, mortification, and the subsequent Gift of Infilling by God, possesses a humanity that has been "deified," by participative union with God. The New Man is the opposite of the Old Man. He is above all, "empty" of self, which means empty of his attachment to his own way, his own self, and his own desires. He is capable, therefore, of obedience to another, and to whatever Providence requires of him. Like a horse that has been broken, he is no longer in opposition to the people, agendas, and the events that transpire in his life. He can readily adjust to circumstances, and whatever happens. He is flexible.

Above all, he is empty of his attachment to his personal agenda and is open to whatever new thing is required of him. His "emptiness" gives him space and capacity for a "fullness." All his mortification, voluntary and involuntary, has been a "breaking" and a "softening" of the hard shell of the Old Man's grasping assertiveness, the natural inheritance of Original Sin. Just like physical healing at the doctor or dentist involves physical pain, the spirit's breaking and healing involves spiritual pain called "the dark nights."

It has been necessary to fashion a new quality of spirit through the nights capable of receiving the "Gift" of God's Fullness, or contemplative prayer. "Contemplation" is a Gift from God that can only be "received." So in order to receive the Inflowing Spirit of contemplative prayer, one needs a spirit fashioned with a New Quality capable of "humble receptivity." One cannot reach out and take possession of God, as if one would add to one's collection of toys, using the Old Man's worldly, competitive, "conquering" attitude. This fullness of God is a Free Gift at home in "emptiness," something which cannot be "possessed," and to which one cannot become attached, since it is never "fixed," and comes and goes freely, according to its own designs. Moreover, the natural faculty of active, aggressive desire, by which one forms natural attachments, is not a significant part of the spiritual equipment of the New Man.

Like the wind, the Fullness of God's Spirit Blows where It Wills. It can never be put in a box. It is the Ineffable, Mercurial, Unexpected, Ever New, Ever Changing, "Can't be nailed down," Being, or Free Spirit of Love, of Almighty God. Selfish, possessive people can have no brook with this Spirit. They know not how to "entertain" It within their active, grasping hearts. Humility, like it is to philosophical supermen, is a mystery to them. They can't figure out how there is more power in humility than there is in natural strength. And the New Man is another Christ, i.e., humble, and one who has mortified self with its possessive demands. He has put on the selfless, Self-Giving Mind of Christ. Unlike the Old Man, he is spiritual, rather than worldly, obedient to the Will of God, "empty" of self, and "full" of His Charity.

When one has been emptied of false-self structures, one is able to live fully in tune with Divine Providence. One waits in loving patience the move of God for each good thing in one's life. And since one is not jaded by over-indulgences on food, sex, and delusions of future riches and grandeur, one very much appreciates the "little things" that God provides each day. Such a grateful spirit, bathed in humility, attracts God's Love like no other. (Such is the grace, lovliness, and awesome beauty of the one who brought the host of heaven to their knees, the one who caused the stars of night to burst forth in joyous song, the little, empty, "desert princess," whose "fiat" shook the world to its foundation, the one who accepted everything, and, when asked for the ultimate gift of self, beyond anything humanly imaginable, said, ' You know I love you Father, "Be it done unto me according to thy Word!" And with the innocent power of her loving response, the little Virgin Princess wounded God's Heart, and set the heaven's aflame, as the universe trembled in awesome songs of joy.) And so, like Mary, the Little Desert Princess, whose emptiness was filled with grace and glory, and who was crowned "Queen of Heaven," as angels sang "The Magnificat" to the assembled heavenly host, our asceticism becomes the Way of Emptiness, in which our souls are filled with the Divine Indwelling.

And within the background of God's Caring Spirit directly enjoined to ours in spiritual union, He takes care of our worldly needs, indirectly, through the people and circumstances of our life. And we learn to be grateful people, and to thank Him for all of them. For only one who is truly empty is capable of appreciating the Goodness of God manifest in the seeming insignificant events of our daily lives. Only one who is empty and needy is always pleasantly surprised by the thousand gifts that are given each day directly by Our Loving Father, and indirectly through the people and events of the daily round.

And one who is empty, and not jaded by greed, illusions, and selfish possessions, is a "grateful" person who, through asceticism and the resulting emptiness, continually encounters the reality of the Mystery of Divine Providence. And one who is empty, and spiritually poor, like Mary, is always ready to respond to the ultimate asceticsm, the willingness to give up our own will, and to readily respond to the demands of God's Will coming to us through the persons and circumstances of the present moment. Such a one has supreme confidence in God and His Word, for he knows by moment to moment experience that God is a caring Father who never fails to deliver on His promises. And when things seem to go wrong, he knows by experience that they will ultimately turn out right. For all the ups and downs of his life have given certain proof of the Goodness of Divine Providence, and that as St Paul stated: "All things work to the good of those who love God."

So, more than likely, assuming you are not yet a saint, whether you realize it or not, you are spiritually "rich." And this may be true although you live in material poverty and destitution. This means you lack the "spirit of poverty," "purity," and "emptiness." For your emptiness is filled with "things." Your emptiness is filled with "attachments" to things, opinions, worldly pleasures, and to the images of your false-self. You know you are attached to people and things because, when you can't have them, you suffer, you get angry, and maybe you even become enraged and violent. And you know you are attached to your opinion because you get angry when you are contradicted. And it will be the job of asceticism to relieve you of your wealth and to make you spiritually poor. Then there will be room for God in your soul.

Perhaps you are full of your self-image as a cool, competent, successful person. Then, when someone says something that implies a challenge to your self-image, you get angry and ready to fight in order to keep your beloved possession. Or maybe your emptiness is filled with the thought that you are a peaceful person, but nonetheless, a "stand-up guy." Then, when someone cuts you off in traffic, you become enraged and angrily swear and make hateful gestures at the other person. Or maybe you resort to threats of violence, or, under sufficient provocation, even assault the vehicle or person of the terrible offender of your deeply loved possession. Then, if in your violent rage you accidentally injure, or even kill the other person, you are, of course, truly sorry. But hey, you have a perfect right to protect your spiritual riches from those who would steal them from you!

Christ, of course, has told us over and over, "Blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth." Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven." And "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."..."Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up!" But that, of course, means nothing to most of us. We don't trust God enough to risk being "empty in spirit." We like being spiritually rich. We like to do things our way. No one is going to take our beloved possessions from us. Just let them try! "Oh God, please keep my emptiness filled with proud illusions and "things" so that there's no room for You in my life. Keep my riches safe from the poverty in which You Dwell. And, then, when I die without You, let them all admire the riches I left behind, and that filled my emptiness on earth and kept You away."

The emptiness that we must create in our souls through asceticism not only lets God in, but it also makes room for other people. Most of us have no room for other people in our lives. This means we are full of our agenda, our opinions, our needs, and our desires. We have no exchange of ideas, or real conversations with others. Rather, than really listening to what others say to us, we pretend to listen while our minds chatter on with critical judgments about the one speaking with us, and about what they are saying. We can hardly hold ourselves back from interrupting them so we can express our own views and opinions. We pretend to acknowledge what they are saying but we are really just waiting for them to shut up so we can have our turn and let our triumphing point of view settle the issue at hand once and for all. In other words, we use other people as a sounding board for our agenda, and our need to affirm ourselves, rather than giving them the respect of really listening to what they have to say about a particular subject.

True love between human beings, as with God, goes on at a deeper level than the surface chatter of our conversations. It goes on at a level of respect below the surface, that exists even though we say nothing and are silent in the presence of the one we love. And the one we love is "Everyman!" So by true Christian asceticism, we must learn to let others affirm themselves and feel our respect for their person when they are in our presence. And this includes all others with whom we disagree, even radically, as to the rightness or wrongness of their opinion or point of view on a particular issue. We must learn to be quiet and let them speak and to express their opinions. We must learn to be silent and listen, really listen, to what they are saying instead of secretly tuning them out so we can concentrate on the brilliant response we are about to make. But then you may say, "But if I havn't corrected their opinion, then I havn't preached the Gospel to them." Havn't You?

Real asceticism, and the corresponding self-emptying, makes us available for developing deep relationships of respect for others, below the surface level of conversation. It gives us the humility to encourage others to tell us what they think about any and every conceivable issue we might discuss, without cutting them off so we can show how right and how smart we are. It gives us the joy of, not only loving others, but of learning from others. Instead of trying to dominate conversations, and to prove we are right about politics, religion, morals, deviant behavior, science, education, child raising, sinners, saints, whatever, we must rather be persons who show respect for anyone and everyone by letting them speak and affirm themselves. And when their opinion goes totally against everything we believe is right, we must show them respect and let them say what they think. And then, to our happy surprise, because we have respected them, and really listened, they may, perhaps turn around and give us the same respect and ask, "What do you think?" And then it will be our turn to express our opinion on the matter at hand. And perhaps they will even listen, due to our respect for them, as we, on occasion, preach the Gospel. Or, on the other hand, maybe they are like us, full of themselves, and, because they have not seen our love, don't really care or want to know what we think.

This is a form of asceticism one can practice during conversation with members of the family or with those with whom one works. As subjects of conversation come up, ask the other person their opinion on the matter. Listen and try to really understand their point of view. Encourage them to speak on the issue. At the same time, watch what is going on in your own mind while they are speaking. Are you respecting them as persons, no matter how you feel about their point of view on the issue. Are you disrespecting them by tuning them out and just waiting to jump into the conversation to impress them with your righteous point of view? Is it really necessary for you to leave each conversation feeling that your opinion has dominated the exchange? Wouldn't it be better, once in a while, to leave with the other person or family member feeling good about themselves because you showed them respect...even though your world-shaking point of view on the subject wasn't fully aired? Wouldn't it be nice, once in a while, to be more loving and cooperative with others, even if you had to give up astounding them with your deep insights which show your unparalleled intelligence and how you are always right about anything and everything? Then practice it!!!

For the goal of asceticism is to empty us, and help us make room for God and others in our "self-filled" lives, and to "free" our will from the slavery of attachment to all manner of finite goods, opinions, proud complexes, and persons, either through love or hate, and from the "false-self" comprised of a network of illusions. These attachments can be very subtle and very difficult to unearth. For they take the form of things that seem to be very admirable to a worldly spirit. Besides obvious opinionatedness and illusions of personal grandeur, our spiritual riches include attachment to such secret impurities as thinking we're somehow superior because we don't like rich people, or successful people, or good-looking people, or ugly people, or those belonging to a particular country, movement or political party.

Or maybe we can't stand people who flaunt their public sins, or who stand for positions diametrically opposed to the Church. Maybe our emptiness is filled with the riches of "hatred" for people of some other religion, or a whole nation of people who have taken a historical stand against the Church and what we believe is correct. Or maybe our riches involve possession of an attitude that says, "Thank you Lord that I am not like these people over here who have committed crimes, broken vows, played the hypocrit with your Commandments. I, on the other hand, tithe, fast, and pray regularly. I could never have been so unfaithful. I know you love me better than you love such hypocrits and public sinners."

Watch out! These spiritual riches, or judgmental attitudes to which we are attached keep God from filling our "emptiness" with His Presence. They also make our religion ugly, and our faith narrow-minded, parochial, and an object of disdain. Christ came to redeem the human race, to love others, and to help them on their way to their Divine Destiny, no matter how sinful their life may be. The human race doesn't need more hatred, particulary hatred from self-righteous Christians. We must be very careful that our hatred for a parrticular sin does not translate into hatred for the sinner.

Maybe we're jaded and have heard it too often. "We must Love our enemies." We are told to do good to them who persecute us. We are told to pray for them rather than corrupt our own spirits by hating them. We must forgive them, even though we're perfect, and we could never have never committed such terrible sins as they have! Right! Who do we think we're fooling? Have we never needed God's grace to keep us from wallowing in the mud?

Remember, no matter how terrible the sins of others seem to be, "there but for the grace of God go you and me." And if we do not forgive from our heart, whether they have asked for forgiveness or not, our heavenly Father will not forgive us our sins. For when Christ forgave His executioners from the Cross, He wasn't hearing Confessions! He didn't ask all around if they were sorry. He said, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do! And maybe if some of those currently in public disgrace had had the graces that you and I have enjoyed, they would have been saints long ago. Remember this! By what measure we measure, it will be measured unto us. So if we expect "Mercy" from God, we better work on kindness and mercy in our asceticism, and practice it in our attitudes and relationships with the rest of mankind! For even though we must prosecute the law and protect the innocent, we don't need to let those responsibilites make us hateful and to fill our emptiness with self-righteous riches, leaving no room in our spirits for the Love of God."

And this will be shown to us during the dark nights of our spirits. Such righteous attachments keep our power of love in bondage and prevent us from surrendering it in poverty, emptiness, and neediness to Almighty God with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind, and our whole self, as required by the First Commandment. The Love of God to which we are called is Total on God's Part, and requires a total response on our part. And we must cooperate in the process, and our love must be free because the Nature of the Love to which we are called is, by Essence, intrinsically free. If it is not freely given, it may be something else, but it is not love:

"Our moral freedom, like other mental powers, is strengthened by exercise. The practice of yielding to impulse results in enfeebling self-control. The faculty of inhibiting pressing desires, of concentrating attention on more remote goods, of reinforcing the higher but less urgent motives, undergoes a kind of atrophy by disuse. In proportion as a man habitually yields to intemperance or some other vice, his freedom diminishes and he does in a true sense sink into slavery. He continues responsible in causa for his subsequent conduct, though his ability to resist temptation at the time is lessened. On the other hand, the more frequently a man restrains mere impulse, checks inclination towards the pleasant, puts forth self-denial in the face of temptation, and steadily aims at a virtuous life, the more does he increase in self-command and therefore in freedom. The whole doctrine of Christian asceticism thus makes for developing and fostering moral liberty, the noblest attribute of man." (MICHAEL MAHER, "Free Will," Catholic Encyclopedia)

"But true emptiness is that which transcends all things, and yet is immanent in all. For what seems to be emptiness in this case is pure being. Or at least a philosopher might so describe it. But to the contemplative it is other than that. It is not this, not that. Whatever you say of it, it is other than what you say. The character of emptiness, at least for a Christian contemplative, is pure love, pure freedom. Love that is free of everything, not determined by any thing, or held down by any special relationship. It is love for love's sake. It is a sharing, through the Holy Spirit, in the infinite charity of God. And so when Jesus told his disciples to love, he told them to love as universally as the Father who sends his rain alike on the just and the unjust. "Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect." This purity, freedom and indeterminateness of love is the very essence of Christianity. It is to this above all that monastic prayer aspires."(Thomas Merton:'Contemplative Prayer')

ASCETICAL TEACHING OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS