The Evangelical Counsels.

The Communio article for last week was J?örg Splett's
Evangelical Counsels in Marriage? The article was fairly typical for Communio; it never explains what the "evangelical counsels" and finally gets around to discussing their application to marriage within the last two pages.

Fortunately, the Catechism can make up for a lifetime deficiency in institutionally-based catechization. Section 915 explains:

Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.

In other words, the "evangelical counsels" are the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience which defines a consecrated life.

This information allows some discernment of the article. The basic thrust of the aritcle appears to be nothing more than the observation that the holiness of consecrated life can be found within marriage, which is not without its own call to chastity, poverty and obedience.

The discussion of the article into a discussion of Christ's temptations in the desert. The temptations are often suggested to model the "evangelical counsels" in that the temptations are said to reflect an overcoming of bodily temptations (in Christ's rejection of the invitation to turn stone into bread), spiritual temptations (in refusing to tempt God through attempted suicide) and social temptations (in refusing to accept the Kingdoms of the world.) The metaphor appears to be forced, but as the grid at the bottom of this ecological approach to the temptations indicates, it's quite common.

This brought up the question of "what was sinful about turning stones into bread?" It doesn't seem to violate any taboo, although it does seem to be a showy display of power and not necessarily consistent with a 40 day fast.

Edmund offered a solution to the problem by focusing on motivation, which I really want to preserve. Edmund noted that the precise temptation is explained at Luke 4:3 as follows:

3 And the devil said to him: If thou be the Son of God, say to this stone that it be made bread.

In other words, the devil is not simply suggesting that Jesus feed Himself by turning stones to bread, he's suggesting that Jesus prove that He is the Son of God. But the event that prompted Jesus' retreat into the desert was His baptism, which was described by Luke 3:21-22 as follows:

21 Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also being baptized and praying, heaven was opened; 22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, as a dove upon him; and a voice came from heaven: Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

So, by Luke 4:3, Jesus already had His proof of His divine Sonship from the best possible source and shouldn't have required further proof through parlor tricks. This, of course, neatly counterposes Adam's initial lack of faith with the Second Adam's total faith and trust.

Very neat.

And while we're on the subject of the "evangelical counsels," please read this amazing story of redemption about a murderer who became a Capuchin monk. Brother Townsend reduces the "evangelical counsels" to "no money, no honey and I've got a boss upstairs."

To repeat, very neat.

[Via Lane Core.]