Who Are You Trying to Impress?
Are we trying to impress our family, our neighbors, our friends, or our coworkers by our extravagant gifts, parties, and decorations? Sociologists tell us that by putting on big feasts and giving costly gifts, people strive to enhance their status, their position in society, to "climb the social ladder." It reminds us of Christ's parable of the rich fool:
"The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What should I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:16b-21).
Our modern western society is infected with the plague of consumerism: just as in old times people died of the disease called "consumption," so are we dying of the modern form of consumption. We consume more and more, both literally and figuratively, to the point of our bellies being about to burst, just like our budgets are busted. Sexual libertinism has given us the disease of AIDS - Auto-Immune Deficit Syndrome, just like consumerist libertinism has given us the disease of STYDS - Shop Til You Drop Syndrome. People simply can't stop spending money: it has become their "raison d'etre" - their reason for existence. The resultant credit card debt is strangling families, leading to bankruptcy, family feuds, divorce, and violence.
In the same way that people can develop a sexual addiction, they can develop a food addiction: perhaps you've heard of people having such a hard time controlling their appetite for food that they undergo surgery to have their stomach "banded" - an actual steel band placed around the stomach to restrict the amount of food that person can consume. But then, sometimes even that can't stop them from overeating to the point that they break that steel band around their stomach! St. Paul wrote:
"Therefore, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us with patience run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Lest we spiritualize away this text by saying St. Paul wasn't writing about literally losing weight, consider verses 11-13 - "All discipline seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby. Therefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed." Clearly he is talking about disciplining our bodies: exercising our hands, our feeble knees, our feet, thus healing our infirmities. There is a spiritual dimension to physical problems such as overeating and lack of exercise.
What is the cure for this disease of STYDS, this plague of consumerism? King Solomon wrote - "Two things I have asked of you; don't deny me before I die: remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me; lest I be full, deny you, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God" (Proverbs 30:7-9). This isn't living in a monastery, but rather living in a "modestary"! Living in moderation is the "golden mean' between stealing or mooching off the government on the one hand, or on the other hand striving to be rich to the point that one only thinks of getting more and more money, buying more stuff, "building bigger barns," or consuming more and more food, drink, drugs or sex.
Hear and heed the Word of God Incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ:
"Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? For what will a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever will be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8:34b-38)
These are the very words that sixty years ago led me to kneel at the foot of the Cross and give my life to Christ. Will you heed them too, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ? He endured the cross, despised the world's shaming Him, and is now seated at God's right hand. Will you do the same? The eternal reward is worth this world's temporary trials and tribulations!
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