← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Should Catholics Practice This Buddhist Principle? (w/ Fr. Mike Schmitz)
00:04:37
📖 Listen to Fr. Mike’s full recording of "The Imitation of Christ" with commentary, available now on the Ascension App! Or check out: https://ascensionpress.com/catholicclassics Fr. Mike Schmitz introduces Thomas à Kempis’ classic, The Imitation of Christ and unpacks its central theme of detachment. He explains how Christian detachment differs from Buddhist detachment. Christian detachment is not indifference or rejection of the world, but rightly ordering our hearts. True detachment means recognizing every gift as belonging to God and being free to use them generously and in love.
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Fun fact. I got done recording this entire book as like, an audiobook with some commentary on it. It's going to be on the Ascension app if you're interested in not just reading it with your eyeballs, but listening to it with your earballs. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension Presents. So there's this great book. It's called the Imitation of Christ by a man named Thomas A. Kempis. This is the Catholic Classics edition by Ascension. At one point, this was like the second most popular book, second only to the Bible and in. In the life of Christians and life of the world in the Western world. One of the things that Thomas Zachimbes talks about, one of the things he describes when it comes to the way that we're called to live in the Imitation of Christ, is this word called detachment. This word detachment can seem like a kind of a Buddhist principle or a Stoic philosophical principle when it comes to this kind of sense of detachment. So what does that mean? First of all, it's not exclusive to Stoicism. It's not exclusive to Buddhism. In fact, virtually all wise people have talked about the need we all have for detachment. Because why? Because it's part of our broken human nature to attach ourselves to things that are not worthy of ourselves. We're attaching ourselves and getting our identity from our possessions, or we're getting our identity from our status. We're getting our identity from what people think about us. We're getting our identity from our relationships in life. Now, those are all good things, because we typically don't choose to get our identity from bad things. Now sometimes we do. Sometimes we can fall into the trap of getting our identity from our shame or from our sins. Nonetheless, we're called to detach ourselves from those things that we choose to get our identity from. We choose to say, this is where I'm going to get my value, because those things are less than you first. Secondly, those things all pass. At some point, they can all be taken away. And so Buddhists will would say, like, yeah, hold onto those things loosely. A stoic would say, hold onto that thing loosely. And that's great, great wisdom. Because at some point your status is going to be taken away, right? At some point, your stuff is going to be taken away. At some point, every one of our relationships in this life is going to end. Pro tip. Detachment is not indifference in the negative sense. I'm going to be detached from my relationship. So, oh, easy come, easy go. Like, I don't really care about my. My Parents, I don't care about my spouse, I don't care about my children. That's not Christian detachment. What we mean by detachment is we recognize the gift of this moment, recognize the gift of this stuff or the gift of this status, the gift of this relationship. We also recognize where this gift comes from. We also recognize, okay, this stuff, this status, this relationship, or whatever it is I value in my life has a source. And that source is God himself. And all of it, I'm going to be asked to give back to God. It doesn't just go away, isn't just taken away, it doesn't go into oblivion. It's not meaningless. In fact, it's the opposite of meaningless. It is incredibly meaningful. Whatever God has entrusted you with, whether that's status or security or possessions, you know, stuff or relationships, whatever it is God has given to you, entrusted you with, we get to give back to him. Okay? God, this comes from you, actually goes back to you. That's why Christian detachment as exhibited here in the Imitation of Christ is different than Buddhist or stoic detachment. It's merely freedom from. It's freedom from being limited by your stuff. It's freedom from being limited by your relationships. It's freedom from being limited about all these things. But Christian detachment has that. It also has freedom for. It's freedom for generosity. I'm detached from myself, so now I'm free to give. I'm detached from my status, so now I'm free to actually live according to the truth. I'm free from this relationship, so I am free to live in right relationship with God and right relationship with the people around me. True Christian detachment, invitation of Christ is not just freedom from, it is freedom for. In fact, I would say this true detachment is to make oneself available to the people in front of me, available to whoever God is calling me to. And ultimately again, it's available to the Lord. What does he want? I encourage you check out this book, especially if you want freedom. Not just freedom from the stuff that is less than us or freedom from the stuff that will be taken away from us, but freedom for the call that God has on your life, which I think you probably could find inside this book and inside that other book. What's that called? That's right, the Bible. Fun fact. I got done recording this entire book as like an audiobook with some commentary on it. It's going to be on the Ascension app if you're interested. Not just reading it with your eyeballs, but listening to it with your earballs. Anyways, Prof. Is here to sensual presents. My name is Father Mike. God bless.