Discipline & Violence

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Wisdom and discipline, and the knowledge of the law are with God. Love and the ways of good things are with him. (Ecclesiasticus 11:15)

For he that rejecteth wisdom, and discipline, is unhappy: and their hope is vain, and their labours without fruit, and their works unprofitable. (Wisdom 3:11)

Wisdom is a gift by which the mind is lifted up from earthly and transitory things, enabling us to contemplate things eternal, that is to say, God Himself, the eternal truth, and to relish and love Him, in which consists all our good. (Catechism of Pius X, The Gifts of the Holy Ghost, Q 3)

The need for discipline is great: without it, we are lead around by anything and everything. It does take discipline to exercise virtues (Temperance and its parts), and discipline is required to not be distracted by temporal things. Those who do not follow God, follow vanities, and it is written of them: Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things. (Philippians 3:19)

Minding earthly things is unsatisfying, and it stimulates only more desire rather than satisfy. The world is happy to provide endless distractions, but we must resist. Happiness is in Charity and Wisdom, not in vanities of the world. The good things of the world should be used for a good purpose, to their proper end, and inordinate desires all kinds should be mortified. We cannot hope to eliminate them all, but we can easily make any worse if we do not fight against them. This is the violence we suffer: And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away. (Matthew 11:12) So often, people forget what violence actually means. For example, rapture (spiritual ecstasy) is violence. It is an uplifting of the spirit that is unnatural to Man, outside of our own abilities. It is violent. It  brings one closer to God as well and reveals hidden things. (ST II-II Q 175 A 1) Looking past the temporal to mind eternal matters we do not see takes discipline, but the peace and joy that is brings is worth every price.

Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols. (Colossians 3:1-5)