Posted on 08/22/2015 9:18:24 AM PDT by Salvation
One of the great “evils” of our time is satiation. I put the word “evil” inside quotation marks to emphasize that no particular good thing that God has made is, in itself, evil. But on account of our own inordinate drives, we accumulate and indulge beyond reason. And in becoming satiated, we leave little room for God or other people.
The more materially affluent we get, the more spiritually poor we seem to become. The higher our standard of living, the lower our overall morals. The more filled our coffers, the emptier our churches. This is the evil of our times; and it is no theory. The data from the past 60 years demonstrate that as our collective standard of living has risen, church attendance and other signs of belief and spirituality have plummeted; so has family time and the developing of deeper human relationships. Marriage rates have declined drastically while divorces have soared. Birth rates are down. Children are viewed as a burden by a satiated world with a high standard of living.
And it isn’t just wealth; it’s all the things that distract and divert us. Most of these things are lawful pleasures, but it’s often just a case of too much of a good thing.
What if, instead, we were awed by God’s providence and fell to our knees in thanksgiving? What if, in our riches, we prayed and went to church even more, out of sheer gratitude? Alas, this is seldom the case today.
The Book of Proverbs says, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me [only] with food that I need for today: Lest I be full, and deny you, and say, Who is the LORD? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain (Proverbs 30:9-10).
Yes, indeed … lest I be full and deny you, saying, “Who is the Lord?” It is a dangerous snare in our times that many think they do not need God or others. Our affluence creates the illusion of self-sufficiency and self-fulfillment.
St. Augustine sadly noted (in a time when people were far less satiated than they are today), I, unlovely, rushed heedlessly among the things of beauty You made. You were with me, but I was not with You. Those things kept me far from You, which, unless they were in You, would not be. (Conf 10.27).
Many other Scriptures warn of the spiritual danger posed by wealth and worldly satiety:
It is amazing that, even after hearing all of this, most of us still want to be rich. We would jump for joy if we won the lottery, rather than soberly cringing with fear and looking for good ways to shed the excess. We still continue down a path of unreasonable desire.
Alas, such is the human condition—at least the fallen version of it. It isn’t very pretty and it’s proof positive that we’re going to need a lot of grace and mercy in order to get home.
Think of that as you watch this video. It’s a pretty stark portrait of modern man. Consider how full he is, yet how lonely. He speaks only of himself and seems to interact with almost no one else. He’s lost in a self-referential world of excess. He’s filled with every good thing but too full for God. Somehow, the man knows that worldly things fill him for only a moment and then pass. But still the answer is to acquire more. Quite a portrait here of too many of us today!
The Book of Proverbs says, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me [only] with food that I need for today: Lest I be full, and deny you, and say, Who is the LORD? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain (Proverbs 30:9-10).
Monsignor Pope Ping!
The country is largely materialistic. Although nominally religious, it is sloughing off into atheistic hedonism.
(liberals may want to look up the words in a good dictionary)
start preaching the world of God again and stop worrying about offending people and that will stop.
-— family time and the developing of deeper human relationships
family time was decimated by the two worker family model, and finish off with technology.
-— Marriage rates have declined drastically while divorces have soared.
Marriage has declined because government has instituted polices that discourage it, it's another failure of the welfare state. Marriage is also declining because government has made it too risky for a man to enter into.
-— Birth rates are down. Children are viewed as a burden by a satiated world with a high standard of living.
Birth rates are down again because of Government policies are making it more and more difficult and expensive to raise children today. The government ruined the pubic schools, forcing good parents to have to pay for private school for the children. The government threatens parents at every opportunity and makes it a bigger burden to raise them today than it was historically.
All these problems can be fixed.
Our churches need to THROW OUT their “big tent” philosophy, and start preaching the word of God again with righteous courage and challenge sinner to change THEIR lives instead of letting the sinner demand the church change to condone their sinful behavior.
Excellent reflections. Especially on preaching the word and not worrying about being politically correct.
I just talked with my pastor this last week about the very subject.
</Our churches need to THROW OUT their “big tent” philosophy, and start preaching the word of God again/>
Amen to that statement. I received my diocesan newspaper yesterday and there was an article about how Bishop Thomas Wenski of Miami (chairman of USCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development) welcomed the White House’s Clean Power Plan that establishes federal limits on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. The bishop called the standard “an important step forward to protect the health of all people, especially children, the elderly, and poor and vulnerable communities, from harmful pollution and the impacts of climate change.” I thought to myself what a bunch of baloney especially when sin has far more dire consequences on people than this crap. Mind boggling!
I can’t argue with a word you posted.
You were with me, but I was not with You.
...
Such an apt description of how it is sometimes.
Thanks for the ping, my dear.
“Our churches need to THROW OUT their “big tent” philosophy, and start preaching the word of God again with righteous courage and challenge sinner to change THEIR lives instead of letting the sinner demand the church change to condone their sinful behavior.”
Here is the PROBLEM and it is two, called the “collection basket” and the “tax exempt” rules from the IRS.
Plus add that, and there is FEAR involved in preaching God’s word.
The future will belong to those who show up for it. There are families with many children. Those children are the ones who will claim the future, while those who had few or no children are really at a dead end.
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