Hand-in-hand with humility goes simplicity. This is a major facet
of Jesus and His family that Father stressed heavily in his Christmas-Eve homily. He
railed about how we have let our lives grow ever more complicated – and I
remember a homily of his from last Advent where he frankly said that he'd pared
down his Christmas-Card list to a mere dozen people. Why get caught up in the
stress over getting a card out to each of your several thousand parishioners,
and hundreds of people you've known over these many years? One dozen.
He admitted early this Advent (and not for the first time) that he
was looking forward to Christmas being over – the rushing around, the
gift-hunting/buying/wrapping/giving; "Who needs it?" he said. Then there's the
traffic, the crowds, the nadir of over-consumerism thrust down our throats via
all the media, billboards, and so on. As a priest and (co-)pastor, he also has
a staggering number of added Masses to say… given especially how some Catholics
only show up at Christmas and Easter. Yet they are here, and are
welcomed from the heart. Before his Christmas-Eve Mass, he laughed, "Where
are you guys the rest of the year?"
Father does not dislike Christmas in the least. He embraces
the essence of the holiday in the meaning of its origin: time set aside to mark
the birth of our Savior, and hope for all of humanity in the world to come. But
he cannot stand the loss of this in the deification of the dollar, while an
infant King is swept aside and forgotten.
In his homily, Father explained how so often he's seen folks
walking down the sidewalk with a – and here he mimed having a cell phone up
against his ear while loping along. Having used the restrained word
"dang" twice already in berating our consumerist, demand-heavy culture,
he pulled off his glove entirely: "Nobody is that damned
important that they can't hang up the phone!" he barked.
We jam cell phones to our faces, buds into our ears, gape with
frog-eyes at the screen glaring back at us. We shut out not just the greater
world beyond, nor our loved ones – but the very silence. And it is in silence
that God speaks loudest. No matter how loudly He yells for our hearts, how
firmly our angel and our conscience speak up for our attention… we'll never
hear it so long as we're loading ever more garbage into our sense-organs.
Hear, hear!
Simplify! This is a message I try to heed, yet find myself ever
more deeply buried in my stamp-collection, computer backlogs, music files, my
papers, Dad's papers and estate items, on and on and on…
Thus every so often, I give away, and it feels great. Goodwill
regularly gets the clothing and leftover computers (once I've reconditioned
them), and last year I was sending off packets of my stamps to a couple artists
who were using them in their works. And before I go to the seminary, I have in
mind someone who'll be getting the lion's share of my books (~500+ paperbacks,
~300 hardbounds)… and he hardly has the time or the room for them himself. I'm
looking forward to a couple robes in my closet, a pair of sandals, a rosary and
Jerusalem Bible… and not much more else. What more do you need?
The more you own, the more it owns you. There's loads more I can
jettison.
And I've seen a young female relative of mine in front of the TV,
working on her laptop with a schoolbook beside her, an earbud in one ear, and
at the other ear her cell phone – which she brought down to eye level so she
could text a friend on the other line. I am not kidding.
My sister Alicia – she of the lovely new baby – is aiming to go
more minimalist herself. Years back, she brought me up short in mid-lecture by
saying, "Is this really necessary?" This same mantra is a great
touchstone all through our lives.
My TV is almost twenty years old, and lately has stopped showing a
picture; I may replace it eventually. But the only thing I would really miss
watching is EWTN, and possibly (guilty blush) "The Simpsons", and
maybe bit of the evening news. But, please! EWTN I can stream over my computer,
and "The Simpsons" I could live without… and the news is hardly great
company. So I’m in no hurry.
Let it go, people; it's not necessary. Be still, and silent, and
know that He is speaking to you… it's why He was born.
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