Detachment

There was once I was sitting on my bed, looking around at things around me that I owned. I began to ask myself how many things that I really needed. To my surprise, I found myself fallen as an unsuspecting prey of consumerism, hoarding things that I did not really need.

Reflecting on things that I do not really need links to another question “what I really need?” What do I actually need? I found myself clinging onto these things of mine for false sense of security, thinking that owning these temporal things will win me admiration, approval and honour.

Am I willing to remove my garment to don the armour of Christ? Am I willing to change some of my bad habits and rid myself of my disorderly affection? I found myself a bit reluctant. These things have become another part of me. Cutting them off is like amputating my own limbs. Cutting them off is like stripping myself bare. Cutting them off is like losing my own self though I know that these temporal things will somehow leave me one day.

I always feel that it is always easier to be stripped off forcefully than to surrender out of free will. Leaving his mule, his sword and dagger, Ignatius sort of burnt his bridges. There would be no U-turn for him. Was he certain of what he is doing? Was he sure? Was he acting out of impulsiveness? Well, maybe I have yet to fully comprehend the meaning of the Scripture, “once the hands are on the plough, those who look back are not fit for the Kingdom of God!”

[Reflection on Autobiography of St. Ignatius, Para. 17]