Abbey-Roads2

It’s gay.

LOL!  Well, kinda, sorta.  It (DD) is a therapeutic term used for persons who consider their homosexuality more as a developmental disorder.  I believe it is a relatively new term originating in the research of therpists dealing with homosexuality as a treatable, and sometimes curable condition.  A leader in this reparative therapy is Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, I will let him explain what DD really is:

Defensive detachment is really the psychological armor, barrier or defense of the personality which keeps homosexuality alive. You might see defensive detachment as a sort of cell that protects the person and also protects the homosexuality inside. It’s an anticipation of being hurt and rejected by other men. And this comes from the earlier rejection by the father.

The predicament of the male homosexual is that he is sexually attracted to men but, because of his defensive detachment, keeps an emotional distance from them. It prevents him from getting what he really wants, which is to have those emotional needs met. So the focus of therapy is to get him to drop that defensive detachment so he can allow himself to experience the healing benefits of non-sexual, intimate male relationships. - Source 

My non-gay use of the term.

Call me presumptuous, but I believe the term ‘defensive detachment’ works for other disorders as well, indeed, I think it can be given an entirely different meaning for ascetical purposes, wherein detachment is a key ingredient for spiritual growth.  That said, I also think the term may be applied to other conditions or disorders.

Take the alcoholic for instance, his withdrawal and isolation from friends, family, and social situations, might be termed ‘defensive detachment’ - in so far as he uses it to facilitate his drinking.  I’m not a psychologist of course, but I like the term so well that I use it in relationship to the life of the pilgrim or fool for Christ, in the sense of a purely ascetical practice.

“The watchmen came upon me as they made the city rounds, and they struck me and wounded me.”  - Song of Songs 5:7

Humility and detachment play a vital part in the lives of such ascetics.  In order to protect their spiritual way of life, they necessarily employ a form of DD.  They leave home, property, family, and in the case of St. Alexius - a wife, to pursue a life of prayer and penance.  If for some reason, their hidden life of devotion and good works is discovered by others along the way, and the pilgrim is soon accorded accolades or respect, or honors, for his talents, virtue, or holiness, the ascetic resumes his pilgrimage, fleeing the company and legitimate friendship of men. 

Therefore, this ‘flight’ may be understood as a form of ‘defensive detachment’ - to avoid all forms of pride and vainglory or preferential treatment.  He seeks to avoid all honors or position, even the notion of leading or directing others, lest he fall into the trap of trying to control rather than living abandoned to Divine Providence.  Thus to protect his spiritual life - that is, to remain faithful to his call - he is unable to oblige the company of men, particular intimacies and friendships, as well as social obligations; and often-times legitimate employment itself does not work out. 

“I hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves.” - Song of Songs 3:4

For the pilgrim, it is much the same as a person fleeing an occasion of sin, or avoiding a person, place or thing which may pose a near occasion of sin.   It is practically a required penance or discipline, a ‘defensive detachment”.  For if a pilgrim would consent to normal intercourse with others, he would soon lose the grace of God, who in order to share his humility and abasement with him, calls him apart from following the crowd. 

“And then we will go on

To the high caverns in the rock

Which are so well concealed;

There we shall enter

and taste the fresh juice of the

pomegranates.”  - Spiritual Canticle; 36 

St. Francis.

Many of us forget that St. Francis and his first followers were so fervent and on fire with the love of God, they at times appeared to be insane to their worldly minded contemporaries.  Francis’ father was among the first to insist his son lost his mind, giving away his clothing and money.  Bernardone imprisoned his son for a time, beat him severely, and finally brought him before the diocesan court, in the hope of dissuading him from throwing his life away. 

It was there, in front of the bishop and all the townsfolk, that St. Francis divested himself completely of his father’s goods, removing all of his clothing and laying them at his father’s feet.  After that, St. Francis lived in the utmost radical poverty; barefoot, clothed in ragged pilgrim’s clothing, in season and out of season.  He dedicated himself to prayer, living on alms and assisting the lepers, rebuilding dilapidated churches, and speaking of the Gospel to anyone who would listen.  

He never said, “Preach the Gospel, and if necessary use words.”

People like to make things up about St. Francis when in effect there is absolutely no need to romanticise his life, or embellish it with tall tales.  That particular quote regarding preaching may have been said by someone describing the manner of life of the early Franciscans.  Their way of life and example conveyed the essence of the Gospel, although the friars would never have neglected actual preaching with words - since that was their mission.

The Fioretti.

The little book called “The Little Flowers of St. Francis” is a collection of anecdotes and sayings concerning the lives of St. Francis and his first followers.  The book contains treasures much like the sayings of the desert fathers, with whom the earliest Franciscans are sometimes compared.  Both groups were extremely simple, and each group appeared to be “foolish” in the eyes of the world.

Countercultural = foolishness. 

I’ll be posting more on the subject as time goes on.  Especially since in many of his talks in Australia for WYD, our Holy Father’s core message seemed to be for the Christian to reject the materialism of the age, saying:

“In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair.”  The 81-year-old pope said it was up to a new generation of Christians to build a world in “which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished — not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed.”  The aim was “a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deadens our souls and poisons our relationships,” he said. - Source  

Animated by the Holy Spirit. 

The saints who were known as “fools for Christ” became an example, not necessarily to imitate, but rather to inspire and direct the Christian’s attention to what is above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father.  The holy fool, inebriated with the love of God, embraces humility and poverty to such a degree as to atone for the pride of the age and to arouse humble compassion, meekness, and charity in the souls of others.  As OrthodoxWiki states:

One form of the ascetic Christian life is called foolishness for the sake of Christ. The fool-for-Christ set for himself the task of battling within himself the root of all sin, pride. In order to accomplish this he took on an unusual style of life, appearing as someone bereft of his mental faculties, thus bringing upon himself the ridicule of others. In addition he exposed the evil in the world through metaphorical and symbolic words and actions. He took this ascetic endeavor upon himself in order to humble himself and to also more effectively influence others, since most people respond to the usual ordinary sermon with indifference. The spiritual feat of foolishness for Christ was especially widespread in Russia. –(Excerpted from The Law of God, Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY: 1993) - Source

(To be continued.)

What a fool believes.

The title of this post sounds like a Batman expletive, but it’s not.  However, a ‘holy intoxication’ may be the inspiration, motivation, or grace which initiates the way of life for the “fool for Christ” or pilgrim ascetic.  [St. Teresa touches on an aspect of  holy intoxication, calling it a 'foolishness for God'.  She uses the term as it refers to the stages of prayer, specifically the 'third water', in her Autobiography, Chapter 16.  Although she returns to it in her other writings; Meditations, Interior Castle, and so on, as well.]

That said, I think the beginning or “novitiate” for the way of a pilgrim is very much like the experiences of the bride and the lover in the Song of Songs.  The pilgrim embraces the Christian life wholeheartedly, even vehemently.  Having fallen in love with Christ, he begins to understand those things he once considered gain, as so much loss in the light of Christ.  With St Paul, he exclaims:  “I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ.  For his sake I have forfeited everything; I have accounted all else rubbish so that Christ may be my wealth and I may be in him, not having any justice of my own…” - Philippians 3:7-9

“For here we have no lasting city…” - Hebrews 13:14

Like Esther, the pilgrim, “consumed with mortal anguish” and subsequently moved by holy fear, takes prayer as his only recourse, and cries out to God, ”My Lord, our King, you alone are God.  Help me, who am alone and have no one but you, for I am taking my life in my hand…”  Esther 4c:14

Frequently, the pilgrim, similar to the bride in Songs searching for her beloved, (and like all men discerning a state in life) makes inquiries as to the best way of seeking God, testing his vocation here and there, all the while struggling to overcome sin and temptation, which were part of his former way of life.  As the “Song” states; “Do not stare at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has burned me.  My brothers have been angry with me; they charged me with the care of the vineyards, though my own vineyard I have not cared for.”  Songs 1:6

Having found the grace of repentance through an encounter with the Divine Mercy, the pilgrim determines to find a way to give himself entirely to God.  He inquires, “‘Tell me, you whom my heart loves, where you pasture your flock’- though I know it be the Holy Roman Catholic Church, ‘where do you give them rest at midday, lest I be found wondering after the flocks of your companions.’” Songs 1:7B  He makes this prayer after many inquiries into religious life and various apostolates within the Church, thinking perhaps he may find someplace to lay his head (Luke: 9:58), as if there were any lasting city in this life in the first place. (Hebrews 13:14)

Defensive detachment. 

Despite his search, the pilgrim’s only consolation is drawing near to his beloved in prayer, even in desolation, since he says, “I would rather lie abject upon the threshold of God’s house than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” (Psalm 84:11)  And although his “homeless poverty is wormwood and gall” (Lamentations 3:19), he can say to the Blessed Virgin, who is his refuge, “I delight to rest in his shadow, and his fruit is sweet to my mouth.” - Song of Songs 2:3B

In this night, fired by loves urgent longings, the pilgrim, finally overcome with love and desperation, as if intoxicated, can no longer hold himself back, for it seems to him he hears his beloved speak to his soul;  “Arise my beloved, my beautiful one and come!  For see, the winter is over… the time of pruning the vine has come.”  Song of Songs 2:10-12  Thus the pilgrim resolves, “I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves…”  Song of Songs  3:2

So, this is how I think the pilgrim (the fool) begins his way - although, without understanding how.