Wednesday, August 23, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Spiritual maturity
Lifestyle matters. I can be a victim of scrupulosity, on the one hand, compulsively catching myself enjoying life “too much” and castigating myself for it (as did all too often the ancient monks). On the other hand I can be a hedonist, seeking pleasure for its own sake and forgoing any spiritual satisfaction which might come with it.
Ron Rolheiser makes a case for erring on the side of pleasure.
As we see from the life of Jesus, self-renunciation and the capacity to thoroughly enjoy the gift of life, love and creation are integrally connected. But excess and hedonism are a bad functional substitute for genuine enjoyment.
In either case, the decision to be scrupulous or scandalous is mostly my own. At least it seems that way. David Brooks believes maturity grows out of taking our relationships more seriously than we take ourselves.
People don’t build secure identities on their own. They weave their stable selves out of their commitments to and attachments with others. Their identities are forged as they fulfill their responsibilities as friends, family members, employees, neighbors and citizens. The process is social and other-absorbed. Maturity in this alternative ethos is achieved by getting out of your own selfish point of view and developing the ability to absorb, understand and inhabit the views of others.
Mr. Brooks’ hope is that this will encourage us to seriously seek high moral standards (the opposite of what often comes from “mob” rule, actually). And that we might  tend toward a more frugal, careful, thoughtful life, not devoid of pleasure but often choosing elsewhere. Perhaps in time I will become a giver, rather than a taker, in my life.
Fr. Rolheiser agrees with Mr. Brooks, describing a chicken and its egg:
It’s only when we can give our lives away in self-renunciation that we can thoroughly enjoy the pleasures of this life, just as it is only when we can genuinely enjoy the legitimate pleasures of this life that we can give our lives away in self-sacrifice.
Rolheiser is not posing a puzzle or a paradox. What he says is true both ways. In either case (renunciation or enjoyment) I must surrender my self to God to get anywhere.
Among other lessons, Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard points out the danger of thinking of myself instead of everyone, and of failing to see that God is the boss of me.
Summon the laborers and give them their pay.
Those who came early and those who came late received the same wage, and the first to arrive grumbled against the landowner, who rubbed their face in their selfishness, “Are you envious because I am generous?
Oh yes, Jesus said, thus the last will be first, and the first will be last.
How often must I remember to see how surrendering to God must precede every enjoyment, whether it be solitary or social, and whether it be meditation or celebration? Will I drink tea or wine, and how fast and how much? All of these choices rest within the loving arms of God, from whence I came and whence I will return.
 (Judges 9, Psalm 21, Hebrews 4, Matthew 20)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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