Prefer nothing to Christ
Our Lord Jesus Christ said to all on many occasions and while giving many demonstrations of it: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me,” (cf Lk 9,23) and again: “anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” Thus, he seems to demand of us the most entire renunciation… “Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be,” he says elsewhere (Mt 6,21). So if we keep back for ourselves any earthly goods or any perishable supplies, our minds will remain sunk in them as though in mud. Then, inevitably, our souls will become unable to contemplate God and will be unmoved by desire for the splendours of heaven and for the good things promised us. We shall only be able to acquire those good things if we ask for them unceasingly, with a burning desire that will, besides, make easy the effort needed to gain them.
To renounce ourselves means to undo the bonds that bind us to this earthly, passing life and free ourselves from human contingencies so that we may become more equal to walking along the way that leads to God. It is to free ourselves from all hindrances so as to possess and use the goods that are “far more precious than gold and silver,” (Ps 119 [118], 72). And, to sum up, to renounce oneself is to lift the human heart into the life of heaven so as to be able to say: “Our citizenship is in heaven,” (Phil 3,20). Above all, it is to begin to grow like Christ, who for our sake became poor although he was rich (2 Cor 8,9). We need to become like him if we want to live according to the Gospel.