Session 2 Summary

11/29/2020

Finding the Center – Part 2

At the end of Session 1, Fr. Barron talked about the “interior castle,” an inner place of safety and power.” It is Christ within us. Most of us have lost the key to that interior castle, but in this session, Fr. Barron talks about two ways to recover it: Holy Detachment and Beatitudes.  

Holy Detachment

Holy detachment, which is found everywhere in the spiritual tradition, is not apathy, but the refusal to put the things of the world (anything, anyone, even oneself) as the center of our lives. Only the person who has attained such freedom has the capacity to move wherever the Holy Spirit calls and hence is ready for the mission of Christ.

Beatitudes

When we attach ourselves to something less than God, we will become addicted because our initial satisfaction will wear off, and we’ll need more and more of the same thing. Jesus shows us how to overcome or avoid these addictions in the Beatitudes (Luke 6:20-22). The word “blessed” can be translated as “how lucky you are” to help our understanding:

• “Blessed are you who are poor …” = how lucky you are of you are not addicted to material things.

• “Blessed are you who weep now …” = how lucky you are if you are not addicted to good feelings.

• “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man …” = how lucky you are if you are not addicted to the approval of others.

In the wheel of fortune of life, sometimes we are up, sometimes we are down. The one thing that doesn’t change as the wheel of fortune goes around is the center, i.e., Christ. If we put Christ as our center, He will calm the storms of our lives. St. Paul did so, and Christ sustained him through the ups and downs of his mission. As he wrote in Philippians 4:11-13:

“I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”