Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15
“That is to say, all men who live only according to the five senses, and seek nothing beyond the gratification of their natural appetites for pleasure and reputation and power, cut themselves off from charity which is the principle of all spiritual vitality and happiness because it alone saves us from the barren wilderness of abominable selfishness.
It is true that the materialistic society, the so-called culture that has evolved under the tender mercies of capitalism, has produced what seems to be the ultimate limit of this worldliness. And nowhere, except perhaps in the analogous society of pagan Rome, has there ever been such a flowering of cheap and petty and disgusting lusts and vanities as in the world of capitalism, where there is no evil that is not fostered and encouraged for the sake of making money.
We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.”
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in The Seven Storey Mountain (New York: Image, 1970) 166-167.
As my son, Sammy, and I travel abroad we get a clearer picture of ourselves and our own society. We see vividly how the things of this world in our own society cut us off from the charity of the Father. Like this closed center gate pictured above, our hearts are closed. Also on our journey we discover people willing to sacrifice all they possess, even their own lives, for the sake of Christ because they have tapped into the spiritual vitality of the charity of the Father.
Being generous is not about giving percentages, calculating gifts, or even selling possessions. It’s about receiving and giving the charity of the Father. Once we do that, everything else amounts to synthetic passions and artificial products. Merton had a keen sense to see all this because he stepped out of his culture. Stepping out of ours gives us clarity too.
Might it be time to take a day off, to have a quiet day of solitude, with no noise to sharpen your senses and restore your spiritual vitality?