Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
(1 Corinthians 9:25-7)
In a moving passage toward the end of Dante’s Purgatorio, Virgil says that his task is now; Dante has been properly purified and will no longer need his guidance.
“I’ve led you here by strength of mind, and art; take your own pleasure for your leader now.
You’ve left the steep and narrow ways behind.
No longer wait for what I do or say.
Your judgment now is free and whole and true; to fail to follow its will would be to stray.
Lord of yourself I crown and miter you” (Canto 27).
“Lord of yourself” is a very attractive phrase.
And it is what the Lord wants for us.
This mastery over ourselves is what we lost in Adam’s fall.
By refusing to submit to God’s just rule over his mind and will, Adam threw the harmony of his being out of order, and his passions and desires rebelled against him.
We have inherited and participated in that unhealthy state.
Now, with the gift of the Spirit, we are once more given the power to gain self-mastery and to be “lord of ourselves.”
We all know how our physical desires try to rule us.
Temptations to lust and gluttony are never far from a man, and we need to wage a steady battle against them.
But we should be aware that there are broader areas, more important, that demand our mastery under the guidance of the Holy Spirit: our minds and our wills.
Our minds.
We live in an age that constantly assaults our minds with false gospels, with mountains of information, with knowledge that we have no need of and no right to pursue.
To be master of our minds is to decide with Christ what we will allow to enter into our thoughts.
It is to resist the seductive passivity that finds us watching, reading, and listening to whatever happens to wander across our phones and screens.
Think how much gossip, slander, and perverse interest in the sins of others constantly swirls around us.
Our wills.
It is the definition of holiness to turn aside from our own stubborn wills and learn to love the will of God.
Yet our age prizes what it calls “autonomy,” which means to be a law unto ourselves.
We love to do what we want, and we get annoyed when something gets in our way.
To master our wills is to stand against that constant impulse to have our own way, and readily to fall in with others when there is no important principle at stake.
It is to take the circumstances of life patiently in stride, knowing that a good Father is ordering all things for our benefit and discipline.
We cannot properly exercise responsibility for others if we have not learned the art of self-control.
Let us ask today for a greater measure of this fruit of God’s Spirit, this gift of inner self-mastery.
The more we submit to God and his goodness, the more we will gain mastery of our mind, will, emotions, and senses.
If we let him, the Lord will help us.
Beg the Lord to aid you in allowing him to help you obtain self-control.
