Stuff

July 24, 2009
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B

To quote George Carlin:

“That's all I want, that's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there. That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time.

A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. All they want is the shiny stuff. That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!

Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore. Did you ever notice when you go to somebody else's house, you never quite feel a hundred percent at home? You know why? No room for your stuff. Somebody else's stuff is all over the place!

Sometimes you leave your house to go on vacation. And you gotta take some of your stuff with you. Gotta take about two big suitcases full of stuff, when you go on vacation. You gotta take a smaller version of your house. You get down to the hotel room and you open up your suitcase and you put away all your stuff. And even though you're far away from home, you start to get used to it, you start to feel okay, because after all, you do have some of your stuff with you.”

We never have enough stuff, do we? We seem to have this deep hole in us that we try to fill up with more and more stuff. What we have never seems to be enough. We are bombarded with thousands and thousands of messages telling us to get more stuff. Whether we can afford it or not. Because that’s how we’ve come to identify ourselves. By our stuff.

Sort of gotten ourselves in a bit of trouble doing it, haven’t we? When it’s all stripped away, it’s not the fault of the banks or the car companies or the government. It’s our fault. We’ve bought into the fallacy that the American dream has become. We’re never satisfied. We’ve become the enablers of disaster.

Well, most of us are doing with less and less stuff these days, aren’t we? And many of us are actually selling a lot of our stuff, even our houses, so we can have the stuff that is truly necessary and valuable. Having better stuff than the folks next door is not so important these days, is it?

I guess the main difference between us and God is that the more we acquire the less satisfied we are. We feel the need to get more and more and more, and we’re never fulfilled. Jesus is different. What he gives he gives in such abundance that everyone has their fill and there is even stuff left over.

Everyone has his fill. Not just the one who brought the loaves and fishes had something to eat. Everyone did. Because no one was left out there was enough. Only when everyone is included in the feast can Jesus work his miracle. Only then can there be an abundance. When we exclude others from the feast we block Jesus’ miraculous mercy.

Pope Benedict issued an encyclical this month entitled “Caritas in Veritate”. Charity in Truth. In it he builds upon centuries of Church teaching on justice and the economy. It is very fitting that this comes out at this time. Perhaps we’re ready now to hear the message it contains. Without all the stuff in the way. It’s a 30,000 word encyclical, so I won’t get into too much detail, but you should read it. It takes the message of charity in today’s gospel and applies it to the world economy. The basic theme is that stuff should not be just for a few, but that everyone has a human right to the stuff they need. This applies not just to individuals but to nations as well.

According to Benedict, man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life, not the other way around. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Charity is necessary for justice, but without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is the human person in his or her integrity. Therefore, every economic decision has a moral consequence. Every economic decision. What house you buy, what car, where you vacation, what you buy at Wal Mart. Because every time you buy something you affect someone else’s life.

The US Catholic bishops issued a statement on the economy in 1996 saying much the same things. The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy. All economic activity should be shaped by moral principles. Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family and preserve the common good. A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.

One man may be able to produce an amount sufficient for his and his family’s own needs. A society can produce an abundance to feed not just themselves but other nations as well. Believe it or not, it is times like these that we need to focus not just on our own needs but on the needs of the world. There can be a tendency to hunker down and hoard our stuff. Jesus says that if we do that we will not allow him to work his miracle. If that small boy had hoarded his loaves and fish no one else would have had anything, and there would not have been anything left over.

Now is not the time to conserve. Now is the time to give.

But if God is involved there can be more than enough for all in the world. That’s where the miracle happens. We may not be able to change the heart of a senator or a president to pass and sign bills and treaties that protect and enhance life and are fair and equitable for everyone in this country and for people of all nations, but God can. But you and I have to take the first step and vote those people into office. And you and I may have a hard time figuring out what stuff is important to keep and what is meant to be given away, but God knows.
The miracle of Jesus in today’s gospel is not that he multiplied the loaves and fishes; it’s that everybody was satisfied. They didn’t want any more. They were content with what they had. That’s what happens when we’re filled up with the right stuff. Not the stuff that decays or goes out of style, but the truth of Jesus Christ. That’s the stuff that we were meant to have, and that’s the stuff we were meant to share with the entire world.