At age 16, life was about rock ‘n roll. If my own band was not performing on Saturday night, I was out in the audience, watching another band.
It would have never occurred to me to spend my Saturday nights at a Catholic conference or retreat. True, no matter how late I was out, I’d never miss Sunday Mass. But that’s not because it was the source and summit of my life. It was because I didn’t want to go to hell. Being roasted over an open fire for all eternity definitely did not appeal to me. But neither did wasting my Saturday night in a Church event that was not strictly required by divine law.
Why is this? Because I craved fun, joy, adventure and fulfilment. And Church was the last place I expected to find any of these things. Heaven was described as “eternal rest.” Nothing could have sounded more boring.
But in the gospel of Matthew (22:1-14), the kingdom of God is not described in terms of an endless ceremony or angels sitting on clouds playing harps. It is painted in the colors of a wedding feast — a boisterous, energizing celebration with delectable food, choice wine, dancing, laughter, and fellowship. But not just any wedding feast. This party will be fit for a king since the bridegroom is a prince. Obviously, the royal Host will spare no expense and it will be truly a gala affair.
But when the King’s representatives issue personal invitations to this party of the century, there are few takers. Perhaps part of it is the fault of the messengers. Maybe their blank faces and monotone voices confirmed the worst suspicions of the invited guests-that anything put on by the King will be a crashing bore.
But where did this suspicion come from in the first place? Isaiah speaks of a veil that covers all peoples, a web that is woven over all nations (Isaiah 25:6-10). It is a web of deceit that has been woven not by a spider, but by the serpent that first deceived Eve. It is an immense propaganda campaign that is subtly woven into the messages of movies, TV shows, and print advertizing. It shows up in teachers’ lesson plans and athletes’ locker room conversations. The message is simple — “do what God says and you’ll have no life. His reign is at worst about oppression, at best endless boredom. Either reject Him or, if you really have to believe in Him, just don’t waste too much time and energy on religion. Give the obligatory ‘nod to God’ and go out and get a life.”
That’s why rock concerts and football games have sellout crowds but we often have to pull teeth to fill a church for a parish mission. That’s why the king in the parable had a hard time filling his banquet hall.
Be honest. Do you see the pursuit of the Kingdom as a joyful romp, or as a tiresome chore? Do you do the minimum, or grab for all the spiritual gusto you can out of your Christian life? Do you make excuses that you’re too tired or too busy when opportunities arise to grow spiritually, or do you make the Kingdom top priority?
The Catholic tradition speaks of “Seven Deadly Sins.” One of the sneakiest and deadliest is often overlooked, which is exactly why it is sneaky and deadly. It is called “sloth” or spiritual laziness. The symptoms? The sloth perceives the kingdom of God to be boring and so can find no energy to pursue it. Everything else — work, kids’ soccer games, super-bowl parties, shopping — takes precedence so that the sloth never gets around to seeking God.
A wise monk once told me that the greatest sin of our sex-saturated, hyperactive culture was not lust but ironically that spiritual laziness called sloth. I think he was on to something.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I believe the technical term is ‘acedia’.
Acedia is defined as spiritual apathy or laziness. Acedia literally means in Latin “absence of caring”. And THAT is definitely the spirit of the age, and it’s the one people will tend to see in some children from devout families surprisingly…they are so used to spiritual things, they become indifferent to it or even contemptuous to religion, like the sons of Eli.
To me, it is the scariest sin of all and the one that mothers must pray against the most.
Madeline
October 6th, 2008 at 7:10 am
But it is so false, there is great excitement in just one conversion. Evangilization is just so exciting and rewarding. It is interest on our talents and this interest is just so rewarding, that once you start you will never stop.
October 13th, 2008 at 10:06 am
My last hospital visit, I left feeling like a new man - not because my physicians had been so effective, for more serious therapy was yet to be done.
No - the man next to me, originally converted to Catholicism for his long-dead wife, looked at my crucifix and witnessed my prayers - and decided he really needed to go to confessiuon. And, this, long years since his last confession. My own spiritual director priest who soon visited me (us!) sent me packing to the lounge while he heard the man’s confession.
PURE BLISS - that God used me to so touch another of His sons. And, all I had to do was pack a wall crucifix (that most of the nurses approvingly commented upon) and my own sick-man prayers. Easy way out of the sloth of spirit that infests worrisome hospitalizations, so wrapped-up can (does!) the sick-man get . . .
Is not the very ‘coolest’ thing about our perfectly ‘cool’ God is that every now and again He lets one or another of us be ‘cool’ with Him? Who knows just what and who may be washed in the ripples of that one confession?
October 13th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I will in fact take the position of the author on this one. Look all around you and count, if you can, all the get rich quick, get happy quick, get a degree quick with almost no work on your part. People are no longer willing to work to get to an end, they merely want to be there. I think that this is why many forms of Oriental meditation (i.e. Yoga) have become so popular today, people see it as a get spirituality quick gimmick. They are not willing to work toward genuine meditation and ultimately contemplation.
Pax