Matthew 11:28
"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will
give you rest."
Fr. Richard says, "The upwardly mobile in our culture cannot feel good about
themselves unless the vacation next year is more luxurious than last year's,
unless the clothes and the house are upgraded, unless the latest gadget is acquired."
I've been listening to Fr. Richard's tapes for a very long time and the chance is
that I have heard almost all of them. Each has taught me something valuable but none has
challenged me more than a set titled "The Spirituality of Subtraction."
On a trip to San Antonio a number of years ago, we listened to the tapes as we
traveled with the plan to spend part of each day of our time away listening to
Richard and discussing his ideas. When we began to see the billboards advertising
the San Marcos Outlet Mall I asked Joe if we could exit and look for a couple
of things we needed. I wanted to get some new sheets for the boy's beds. I did and then I said, "Joe.
I really would like to look in the kitchen shop as well. We need to get one of
those new wide slotted toasters." He reluctantly said, "okay"
and we did.
We got back into the car and as we drove out of the parking lot I pushed play and
the tape continued. Fr. Richard's first words were, "people think they have
to have the newest thing in order to be happy, like those new wide slotted toasters." Joe and I laughed, but it was nervous laughter, the kind that avoids the moment.
Richard continues in today's reflection, "This keeps us all quite trapped and
un-free, and inherently unsatisfied. We are running on a perpetual hamster's
wheel."
Meanwhile, most of God's people on this earth starve; most of God's people have to
learn to find happiness and learn to find freedom at a much simpler level. What the Gospel
is saying, of course, is that such simplicity is the only place that happiness
is ever to be found in the first place. We have moved to a level where we have
made happiness and contentment largely impossible."
The entire system is so very subtle for those of us who live in a city like Dallas.
And it is my contention that because we don't "rest in God" we are
intentionally and easily led to new styles, bigger houses and wide-slotted toasters.
For so very long I believed that after we got everything we needed we could rest. But the truth is, unless the rest that Jesus offers comes first,
there will never be an end to the desire for more of this or that.
According to Brother David Steindl-Rast, "The economics of affluence demands
that things that were special last year must now be taken for granted."
The Question: What in your life, material or not, are you using to fulfill a need
that really should be sought from elsewhere?
And the answer for me is ..... it all depends on the day and how faithful I have
been to my spiritual practice. It could be any number of things on any given
day. Just last week I was in the kitchen and I thought, it would be good to have
a four-slice toaster. We don't eat bagels much and I could toast them in the
oven when we want one.
I don't know how I have arrived at a place where I think of toasting the bagels in
the oven after I have the wide-slotted taoster instead of before. But I do know
that this journey is not an easy one. And I do know that the only way to fill
the hole in my soul is with rest in God.