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Possessions & Spiritual Bonding
"...for us wounded human beings, possessing [something] imperceptibly slips into [our] being possessed. No sooner do I have a watch of some quality than I begin to be reluctant to part with it, even if someone needs it more than I do. This means that it, a mere thing, has taken a hold on my heart. It is not only the miser who is possessed by his money. He is merely a stong case of all of us... One of the most rapid ways to upset a man is to suggest that he ought to part with the superfluous material things he enjoys. Rare too is the woman who takes readily to the idea that her jewellry or extensive wardrobe should be disposed of for the benefit of the poor. Having wealth is damaging to the pursuit of the kingdom becuase the very having does something to one's inner life, one's very ability to love God for his own goodness and others in and for him..."
Fr Thomas Dubay, in "Happy Are You Poor: The Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom", Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2003, p59
posted by Holly at 8:21 AM
3 Comments:
For years, I puzzled over 'what was wrong with stuff', since Jesus kept seeming to warn me about it. But I didn't understand.
I remember watching a documentary about Mother Theresa as she opened a new New York Home for the Poor - she went in, and threw out the phones, the mattresses, and other fairly basic stuff - and left it in a large pile in the alleyway. I puzzled for years over that - "Why did she do that?" "Why did she get rid of even the basics and leave her and her nuns, and the poor, with only mats on the floor?"
Not easy questions. Mysterious.
Until one day, feeling rather free and detached from material goods, I was trying to clean out my room. I was trying to decide which things to give away and which to keep - when I noticed my heart twinge over a certain statue. Hhmmmm. My 'heart' twinged over a 'thing'...
And that is the crux of it all - the reason why we cannot worship both God and mammon. The reason why 'actual' simplicity is necessary -
because our hearts BOND with stuff, over bonding with God.
Thus my dependance on things becomes a form of idolatry.
I soothe myself with stuff.
Feel bad? Go shopping, and the heart feels better. Down in the dumps? Plan your next furniture purchase. Feeling pressured? Go bond with a cup of coffee.
When I 'need' my coffee or treat or smokes or alcoholic beverage... When I can't do without that new dress... All of these are indications of my heart looking for consolation, strength and solace in something OTHER than God. Like the Israelites in the desert yearning for their Egyptian onions..
This Advent - let's try to become more and more aware of how our hearts are bonding with something 'other' than God - and how, in order to make room for him in our hearts this Christmas, we need to clean out the 'stuff' that presently clutters it. I imagine there are many poor and needy families who could use many of our superfluous goods...
This is a humbling meditation. For us to pass on the freedom that comes with spiritual poverty on to our children, we must embrace it first for ourselves. Dearest Jesus, please grant us mothers the grace to be detached from "things".
Amen, Amen.
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