Day 4. Too Much “Stuff”
Vocation Discernment Preliminary Novena
“Am I Ready for Discernment?”
The same night [Jacob] got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying,“For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.”
Genesis 32:22-30 NRSVCE
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
John Lennon, Imagine
Mother Teresa once told the story of a dying man whose open sores she was cleaning. He asked her, “Why are you doing this for me?” “Because I am a follower of Jesus Christ,” she replied. “Then I want to become a follower of Jesus Christ, too,” he said. Jesus came into the world poor, and he left the world poor. Throughout his life he was to be found amongst the most marginalized members of society.
As we consider again today Jacob’s situation by the riverside, we note that he “had brought over all his possessions.” Apparently he found all his “stuff” to be a distraction as he pondered his fate. Odd. He had risked his life and toiled for years to gather all this wealth. Yet on the eve of meeting his brother Esau, it all seemed like more of an encumbrance and a nuisance than the prize he had always thought it to be.
Death does that. It puts things like wealth and power in perspective. On their deathbeds, billionaires lament their billions and the powerful grieve their powerlessness. As Billy Graham once observed, “You won’t see a U-Haul hitched to the back of a hearse.” Or as one powerful Wall Street executive said, “It’s a terrible feeling to spend your whole life climbing over other people on the corporate ladder only to discover that it’s leaning against the wrong building.” Too bad so many of us don’t learn this lesson until late in life.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to meet your Maker with nothing to show for your wealth but regrets. Still, if you don’t currently have much “stuff,” you may wonder what this has to do with you.
Most of us will never be rich. You probably realize that. And, I suspect that as long as you are fairly comfortable, you’re okay with not being rich. Maybe you just want a few nice things – like a better phone – and you’ll be satisfied.
If you examine your heart, though, you may see that beneath a desire to “be comfortable,” there lies an unstated fear. “What if someday I don’t have enough? What if someday I become poor or go hungry?” This is a fear common to all people, and according to Jesus, it’s what drives many to gather wealth far beyond what they need (Mt 6:31,32).
In contrast he says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt. 6:19-21 NRSVCE)
This may be one of the most radical teachings of Jesus. Don’t gather wealth. Don’t amass riches. Don’t worry about going without. If you really let this idea sink in, it can shake you up. Me, I start looking for excuses. “Well, who really lives like this?” I ask, “I know lots of good Christians who are pretty well off – and some of them are priests and religious!” Such mental escape clauses miss the point.
The danger of wealth – and it’s a danger for the poor just as much as for the rich – is that what you own will soon own you. Your possessions begin to possess you. Think about it. Can you recall any relationships that were damaged or ended over possessions? Someone borrowed (or just took) something of yours and ruined it? Someone ate your food or stained your favorite shirt or dropped your phone and cracked the screen? Did you explode? Sulk for days? Ponder revenge? A relationship is far more valuable than even the most expensive possession. Possessions pass away. Relationships open the way to eternity. Still, we grow blind to this as our vision becomes clouded by our “stuff.”
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was the son of a wealthy newspaper publisher in Turin, Italy in the early 1900’s, but he was remembered by his friends as one who cared little about living the “good life” because he preferred helping the poor. “You are lucky” a friend once said to Pier Giorgio. “You are rich and your father can do anything for you that you would like.” Frassati responded, “What does all that count for from the point of view of eternity?” Pier Giorgio is a great example of someone who was not blinded by possessions. He shows us the real wealth of the Christian soul: a generous heart. For this reason Blessed Pier Giorgio has a very special place in this Novena, though you’ll have to wait to learn more about him. He lived this heroic generosity to the end. On his death bed Frassati struggled to write out directions so that a poor family could receive the medications he had purchased for them. “All around the sick and all around the poor,” he once said, “I see a special light which has nothing to do with either riches or wealth.”
Poverty is the norm for those who follow Jesus more closely in the consecrated life (despite the poor examples of some consecrated priests and religious). But poverty doesn’t mean what it often means in the world. It doesn’t mean a life of ignorance, disease, and filthy living conditions. Poverty (or simplicity, as it is also called) is a conscious decision to own as little as possible in order to possess Christ as much as possible. That is the “treasure in heaven” of which he speaks.
And, if that means threadbare clothes or sleeping on the floor or missing a few meals, so be it. Most likely, however, it will not. That’s the whole point. The Father doesn’t neglect his children. He dares us to trust him with all our needs. He won’t let us starve if we place our confidence in him. He promises us sufficient means in this life and overflowing abundance in the next. Jim Elliot, a missionary who was martyred in Ecuador by Auca tribesmen in 1956 put it this way: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
As we conclude today’s reflection, I invite you to consider this passage from the Sermon on the Mount. It is one of the most moving and inspiring passages in all of scripture, if not in all the world. Let it touch your heart. Let it change you.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
-Matthew 6:25-34 NRSVCE
Novena Prayer
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
- Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude
© Abbey of Gethsemani
Make it My Own
Daily Discernment Workbook
BREAK OPEN YOUR BIBLE
1. How does the passage speak to me?
In reflecting on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount (above) I consider how the passage speaks to me. It’s relatively easy at this stage of life to be idealistic about wealth and material possessions. Most college students and recent grads don’t have a lot of expensive “stuff” yet. So it might not seem like a big deal to me to live without much. Still, we all have real needs.
Where do I turn first to meet those needs? For example, when I get into financial trouble, is my first impulse to pray or to call the parents? (by the way, there’s nothing wrong with asking the folks for help – this question is getting at whether prayer is my first thought or just an afterthought). Who do I turn to? Friends? Family? My own clever solutions?
Looking to God. How can I start to express my dependence on God’s provision more consistently on a daily basis?
Is there one possession I prize too much? If this item (a car, a technology device, a piece of clothing, a computer game, a music collection, etc.) were taken from me, would it turn my world upside down? How generous and detached am I about lending this item? (Note: good stewardship of something valuable – say a car my parents gave me – is not the same as unhealthy attachment. Appropriate care should be taken of the things God and others entrust to me.)
A QUOTE TO NOTE
2. From Self-Centered to Self-Giving
Jesus loved the lost, the last and the least the most. Does my life follow this pattern? Pope Francis lays out the challenge for Catholics today.
I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. ...
We may not always be able to reflect adequately the beauty of the Gospel, but there is one sign which we should never lack: the option for those who are least, those whom society discards. Sometimes we prove hard of heart and mind; we are forgetful, distracted and carried away by the limitless possibilities for consumption and distraction offered by contemporary society. This leads to a kind of alienation at every level, for “a society becomes alienated when its forms of social organization, production and consumption make it more difficult to offer the gift of self and to establish solidarity between people”. [CA#41, JPII]
- Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium
Too much comfort and “stuff” makes us blind to the needs of the poor around us. How do I see this in my own life?
What step can I take today to reject the distraction Pope Francis talks about? What music, movies or social media can I cut back on to make more time for people in need?
Conclude with
“Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be.
World without end, Amen.”
[1] Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis #’s 49, 195, 196