Given the current state of the world, bewilderment might be the next pandemic. Catholic scholar Luke Burgis makes an interesting comment about how people deal with disorder in their lives. Many people who aren’t spiritual eventually become numb. Just think of the confessional lyrics from the rock band Pink Floyd: “The dream is gone / I have become comfortably numb”.
Secular people don’t have the ‘spiritual enzymes’ in their system to digest what the prince of this world is offering them as sustenance, so they eventually become dead inside. Living in the same social environment, many people who are spiritual become fragile, but it is far better to be fragile than to be numb. The Bible is quite up front about our fragility. In Matthew 12:20, a prophecy about Jesus reads, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench”. Our engagement with life can be quite a bruising experience, but we have been given the latent ability to grow spiritually from disorder, and even become saints. As per Philippians 2:12, “Therefore, my dear friends… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
In 2 Corinthians 4:7 the apostle Paul recognizes our vulnerability, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Notice that he says we carry our treasure in earthen vessels and not Tupperware containers. From one point of view, earthen vessels are fragile, and if dropped they can break, but boy, they can take the heat. Tupperware can safely coddle your treasure, but it doesn’t fare well in the oven. In the process of our sanctification, we will be subject to the refining fire of the Holy Spirit. We will be taking some heat.
What do we do with our fragility? We offer it up in the ‘economy’ of salvation. That economy is based on sacrifice. In a secular sense, if you sacrifice a bit of your salary each week, when you retire you will receive back a pension from the compound growth of those small investments. The ultimate return on investment in the spiritual economy takes place at the Mass. There we offer a wafer of bread and receive back the real presence of Christ in a form that we can consume, and we can literally have the presence of Christ within our very being.
What do we get back when we offer up our fragility to God? In Philippians 4:7, it says, “With thanksgiving [or in Greek, Eucharistia], present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” We all need the gift of peace.
Image credit: Photo by Jean-Paul Wettstein
Authors
Adele's Photography
