Sermon Preached at Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis Rochester on the First Sunday in Lent
The time has finally come,
and the demolition team has arrived
to begin the deconstruction
of the now defunct St Cedd’s Monastery
to make way for new housing.
The first blows of the wrecking ball
take out the bell tower
and the Oratory roof.
Subsequent blows
remove the dormitory walls
and the kitchens.
As Geoff the foreman
co-ordinates the destruction,
he notices on a ridge
well out of the way
the cowled figure of an aged monk
staring out at the demolition.
Geoff walks over to the monk.
“I’m sorry Father,“
he says genuinely,
“this must be very hard for you
to see your old building demolished.”
“Indeed it is,” says the monk,
his ancient face made more sombre
by the sadness in his eyes,
“I left my iPod in the dormitory.”
Even monks are not immune from
the fashions and fads from secular society, it seems.
How many adverts do we see on the telly
that bombard us with the latest thing
and the must-haves?
It’s fascinating to watch the language here.
What is a “must-have”
and why must we have it?
What is it about this Xbox console
which makes its purchase
so important,
so vital,
so necessary
that life is not worth living without it?
This sounds like a lot to live up to.
We seem to get sucked
into this mentality very easily.
We even use shopping
as a remedy to cheer us up
and call it retail therapy.
Yet, when we look at the clutter of our lives,
we don’t understand why our possessions
or our desire for possessions
really help us feel better.
St Maximos the Confessor says,
'He who forsakes all worldly desires
sets himself above all worldly distress.'
DFS and Foxy Bingo Dotcom have other answers.
Our attitude to our property
tells us much about how we expect
to find true happiness.
Our Blessed Lord Himself observes
“For where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also.”
Society often presents us
with two choices with regard to property:
we may have something
and thus be expected to want more
or someone else has something
and we are expected to want
what they have.
We are encouraged into Avarice or Envy
by big companies so that employees
can reasonably earn wages.
The trouble is that these employees
are also subject to the same temptations
to Avarice and Envy as everyone else
and so require higher wages.
Sounds a little bit circular, doesn’t it?
It is important to be clear
about the attitude that we should have
towards possessions and property.
We read very clearly in Genesis
that God creates and enjoys His creation
and that He Creates Mankind
and expects Mankind
to enjoy His creation.
There is nothing wrong with possessing,
using and enjoying what is part of God’s creation.
Indeed, that’s the original idea!
However,
there is a fine line between
enjoying God’s creation
and nurturing selfishness.
The Lord says to the Rich Young Man
“If thou wilt be perfect,
go and sell that thou hast,
and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:
and come and follow me.”
While showing clearly
that none of us are perfect without Him,
Our Lord is making the point that
carving up the world into
“things that are mine”
and “things that I want”
is not the way to view the world.
It prevents us from being perfect.
What does the Lord mean by “perfect”?
He means reaching the purpose
that God has created us to fulfil.
Our attitude to what we have
stops us from being what God wants us to be.
Our selfishness actively stops us from being happy.
How on earth can we happy being envious?
Envy is surely the most miserable of sins.
There’s nothing to enjoy about it.
At least, with Gluttony,
you get to enjoy your food.
There is nothing to enjoy about Envy.
Avarice may make us happy for a while.
However, things decay and the Lord again says,
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through
and steal :
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through
nor steal.”
We cannot be truly happy
until we see ourselves apart
from what we claim we own
which is how God sees us.
This is why we need to learn
to be flexible with our belongings.
Like the money changers
in the temple court blocking access
to the worship of God,
it is our attitude to our belongings
that clutters our pathway to the Divine.
So what is the antidote?
Should we be as violent as Our Lord is
when He throws the money changers
out of the temple precincts?
We don’t need to be as extreme
as St Francis who even threw off the clothes he was wearing
to be free from ownership,
but we certainly do need to be firm with ourselves.
The best remedies against avarice and envy
are to be temperate in our taking
and generous in our giving.
The more temperate we are,
the more we can spot when we are being selfish.
The more generous we are,
the less attached to material things we become
and we are able to prize more
the Presence of God in our lives.
How much more of God
are we willing to make room for in our lives?
How generous are we going to have to be?
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