Not having sex? Obeying social conventions? Renouncing material responsibilities?
These three approaches are today rightfully interpreted as manifestations of hypocrisy, psychological illness, ignorance or avoidance of one’s duty.
There have been, however, those who have lived the classic stereotype of the ‘saint’ and were a truly noble spirits, but because of their idealism, kindness to others and devotion to God, and not for the reasons that were considered signs of higher moral value.
Currently, enlightened men and women do not yearn for ‘sanctity’, they seek to be mature and fair, in the fulfilment of duties they perceive as their responsibility, not by delegation of today’s morals and legislation, but as an assignment of their own consciousness, which often, as we know, can contradict what the law or customs, of a time and place, dictate as right.
Saint Francis of Assisi, for example, took off his clothes in public, in the “shocking” circumstance of rejecting his biological father, during a lawsuit filed by the latter, who accused him of stealing his material possessions.
Benjamin Teixeira de Aguiar and Spiritual Friends.
July 31, 2014.