Someone I know who has a lot of expertise with dogs often talks about how surprised she is when people are surprised when certain breeds of dogs act in certain ways. She says that it makes a lot of sense to her because, she says, “You have to go back and understand what that dog was bred for. You need to understand their original purpose because that’s what’s in their DNA.”
On my bookshelf is a collection of essays from the late poet Wendell Berry called, “What Are People For?” He never directly answers that question in the book – leaving the reader to discern their own answers. And I think about that question quite often.
What are people for? What is our original purpose?
In our first reading from Ephesians 2, Paul offers one definition. He says that we have been “created in Christ for good works.” He admits that we have all gone astray from that purpose in one way or another but that the grace of God enables us to live into that purpose.
In other traditions, like the Popol Vuh (which is the creation story of the Mayan people), humans were created so that the deities would have conscious beings who could speak, remember, tend the earth and offer thanksgiving to the creators.
Other Indigenous traditions would probably share a similar view saying that humans were created by the Creator to live in sacred relationship, to be stewards of the land and to maintain balance between and among the created order.
What would you say we were created for?
In our gospel from Luke 12, Jesus is approached by some people who ask him to settle a dispute over inheritance. Sensing what this is all about he says, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” He then goes on to tell the story of a rich man who has a bumper crop. The rich man says, “I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
That very night, God comes to take this man’s life and calls him a “fool” because the man has stored up “treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”
The rich man had forgotten what his purpose was, and his purpose was certainly NOT to accumulate more and more things.
In the 1920’s in this country, as the Industrial Revolution was supplying us with more and more goods, the idea that acquisition and consumption were a path to happiness began to take hold. Business leaders realized that unless people could be persuaded to buy more and more things, the gains of industry might quickly disappear. In his classic 1928 book called Propaganda, business leader Edward Bernays wrote that “today supply must actively seek to create its corresponding demand … [and] cannot afford to wait until the public asks for its product; it must maintain constant touch, through advertising and propaganda … to assure itself the continuous demand which alone will make its costly plant profitable.”
Not long after his book was published economists began to speak about the “new economic gospel of consumption” and began to speak about people of this country as “consumers” instead of citizens.
A new gospel.
People as consumers.
What are people for? What is our purpose?
The poet William Blake once said, “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough?” This was a line from a section of his book. The section was titled, “Proverbs Of Hell.” Seems appropriate.
It’s no secret that our culture does not know what enough is. Many of us do not. I often think about what Jesus would say were he to walk among us in the world today. And would we even listen to him if he spoke directly to us?
Returning to the words of Paul (and echoing the vision of our Indigenous siblings, we know that our purpose is not to accumulate but to do “good works” in this world – to use our lives and resources in the service of the world (and of creation).
Richard Rohr, OFM, invites us – especially in this culture – to practice a “spirituality of subtraction” where we strive to keep releasing and letting go of what we do not need. Rohr says that “the counter-intuitive nature of the Jesus-journey shows it is not at all about getting, attaining, achieving, performing, or succeeding.” He goes on to say that figures like St. Francis “took a joyful approach to inner and outer liberation. His entire lifestyle was a wholesale critique of the way most people live, yet he did not do this in a negative or moralistic way. After spending time as a prisoner of war when he was very young, Francis seemed to realize the intrinsic connection between violence and our preoccupation with money, possessions, and empty status symbols. He felt the only way to get out of the world of violence, competition, and hatred was to live a simple life—a life that did not appropriate anything to itself, sine proprio as he put it, but a life lived in constant presence to what was right in front of him, which was nature itself, an always present doorway to the divine.”
What are people for? What is our purpose?
Maybe this week, as we ponder this question, we can take some time outside or in relationship to the created order to let the world speak to us (again) about who we are and what our purpose is. And maybe we can consciously work to practice a spirituality of subtraction in our lives and release all that we do not need.
2 Comments
Wallace Hamilton
The Gospels teach us material possessions are not enough for a happy and fulfilling life. Nor does Christ advocate total denial of all creature comforts. Moderation seems the lesson.
People are meant to first procreate. A fundamental biological necessity. Second, be happy in every situation (a tall order). Third, grow beyond self absorption to love an other. Fourth, and finally to love all mankind. Thi can be done and is regardless of the culture, circumstances or consumptive attitude.
Christine M McEntee
Dear Mike,
Again such beautiful and inspiring words to feed our spiritual selves that we may be willing to give unto others. I feel sad when I think of what awful stewards humans in our western society and culture have done to run our natural world down , redirect and reduce the possibility of relating to our natural world. I Seek outside more than not and am ever grateful for this planet which can provide all we need without reducing it to a jingle, propaganda and lies. A new week with new ?s is a good week. Thank you .