Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

“Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss 
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things 
and I consider them so much rubbish, 
that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”

Phil 3: 8-14

This past Sunday we were given a beautiful reading second reading that I cannot seem to shake from my conscious. It is a concept that is not easy to adopt in our lives - relinquishing all worldly possessions and desires so that we are empty and may be filled with Christ.

It seems almost impossible and certainly would be met with judgment by our society.  We are inundated on a daily basis with advertisements, marketing campaigns, and media which successfully convinces us that buying [insert good or service here] will contribute greatly to our happiness. As a business major, I am sometimes taken back by what we are taught in the classroom. Many times I find myself thinking, “This consumption driven, self-indulgent society is not what God intended.” We were created for much more, and more importantly, are underutilizing ourselves.

I am guilty; of course, to succumbing to the “normal” 21 year old wants. I too have bought Uggs, a Northface coat, and designer clothing. This is not necessarily bad. To have nice, quality things is not bad, but I believe the excess of these things will lead to a misconstrued view of life. We begin to think we need these things. We begin to judge based on what is on our bodies, we see categorize based on what we believe someone’s economic standing to be, and we create ideologies of acceptance based on Elle, Vogue, and Marie Claire.

It is easy to do this. Retail therapy is relaxing, we don’t have to think, it gives us momentary happiness; therefore, we continue to do it. But, what if we tried for a week, two weeks, a month to limit ourselves. Limiting ourselves so that the Divine can enter into our beings and make us limitless. Are you up for the challenge?

S.B.