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On Being Possessed by Our
Possessions
A STORY
As the young novice knelt in his cell he prayed for detachment. After
years of having many possessions and living a worldly life, he asked for
the grace to be able to detach himself from the desire to have or keep
worldly things.
He was off to a good start. His cell was located in a courtyard near the
old stables behind the monastery. The room was basic. A small cell with a
door and in the door a window the size of a man’s face allowed him to look
out over the snow-covered courtyard. There were simple, modest furnishings
in the room. Along one wall stood an old rickety desk and chair with a few
sheets of paper and a dull pencil sitting on top. Beside the paper was a
dog-eared Bible that had been left by the ancient priest who had
previously lived in the cell for forty years before his glorious departure
to be with the Lord. Across the cell from the desk on the floor was a thin
straw-filled mattress and above the mattress hung a simple wood crucifix.
As the young man was praying there was a knock upon his cell door. A
priest from the monastery informed the young novice that a visitor had
arrived in the night and was in need of a bed. The priest asked the young
man if he would consider giving up his bed for the night for this visitor
who may be Christ in disguise. The novice thought of the cold
uncomfortable floor that was hidden beneath his straw mattress and then he
remembered his recent request of the Lord. He offered his bed and cover as
well.
The following morning the same priest returned with some terrible news. As
it turned out, the visitor was actually a thief who ransacked the chapel
and started a fire with the straw mattress that destroyed the interior of
the chapel.
Since the chapel had been gutted the priest asked the novice if he could
part with his desk for they needed an altar for mass. He also asked for
his Bible and crucifix so that mass could be offered with some dignity.
The young man thought long and hard. He knew he would miss sitting down
with Sacred Scripture but he willingly gave the priest the desk and the
Bible. The crucifix was harder to part with for many reasons. It was a
gift from his mother when he entered the religious life and she had passed
away shortly after. To look at the crucifix was comforting because he
remembered his mother and at the same time entrusted her to the Crucified
One. As he looked at the crucifix he again remembered his prayer for
detachment and with a smile removed it from the wall and handed it to the
priest.
That night he lay on the cold stone floor in his habit looking at the
rickety chair in the middle of the cell by the light of the moon. The room
was quiet and cold and he could hear whispering outside his door. In an
instant the door was kicked in and two men entered his cell. He jumped to
his feet without saying a word. The thief and an accomplice had returned
to the monastery to find more items of value but all they could see in the
cell was the rickety old chair. As one thief turned to leave the light of
the moon shone through the doorway and onto the trembling young novice.
Without a word one thief grabbed the young man and threw him to the ground
ripping his habit from his body and began kicking him. The other picked up
the chair and began striking the novice until the chair fell to pieces.
The thieves beat him until he was nearly dead and then ran off.
The light of the moon shone brightly on the young man's face as he lay
there naked and dying. He remembered his prayer for detachment and a smile
came to his face. He had been stripped of all his worldly possessions and
he was quickly fading but he was happier now than at any other time in his
life. He was happy because he still had one possession that no one could
take. He came into this world with nothing but he would leave this world
with one single possession. He was happy because he was possessed by this
greatest possession, this great treasure, the pearl of great price, Jesus.
A CHALLENGE
In his book
Happy Are You Poor: The Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom (Ignatius 2003), Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
writes, “for us wounded human beings, possessing imperceptibly slips into
being possessed.”
We live in a culture of things. The world tells us that our happiness and
fulfillment exists in objects. For the most part our grooming and
education is geared toward the goal of accumulating items of value. Those
of us who try to live lives that are faithful to the Gospel are not
exempt. Often our religiosity can lull us into believing we are detached
from the desire for worldly goods when in fact we are possessed by the
very objects we claim to possess.
For a Christian in today’s society this detachment can be extremely
difficult to achieve. It is difficult because the radical nature of
Christ’s message has been diluted. In many denominations Jesus is either
the friend next door that will hang with you no matter what you do or He
is the social justice superhero of the Twenty-first century. The
predominate Christian message today is that we should all “love” each
other and we are all free to make up our own definition of “love”. Hardly
ever do we hear the message that Jesus wants us and wants us without any
baggage! I have never heard a radio evangelist call those listening to
renounce all they have and follow Jesus. I have never heard a priest call
his parishioners to sell their second car and give the money to the poor.
Too often we rationalize by saying, “I give this much to the Church and I
pray and I am a good person.” The Gospel has a blunt and difficult answer
for us if we have the ears to hear. When the rich young man approaches
Jesus and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life Jesus tells him
to follow the commandments. The young man replies that he is doing all of
that. In short, he is a “good person.” Jesus replies that the next step
would be for him to sell what he has, give it to the poor, and then follow
Him. This disturbs the young man and he goes away. Here we could ask a
simple question, “why couldn’t the young man simply follow Jesus? Why did
he need to detach himself from his worldly goods?”
TO FOLLOW CHRIST
To follow Christ and to follow Him closely requires a complete detachment
from earthly goods. We cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot have it both
ways. This in no way means that we can posses nothing but that we should
not be possessed by anything. Our soul, spirit and disposition should be
one that could care less about any possession we claim to possess. This
sounds easy but we are, as Fr. Dubay says, “wounded human beings.”
Think of the last gift you received and the person who gave it to you as
well. Now imagine parting with it. Is it hard to imagine parting with this
object? Why? Is it because you look at it often and enjoy its beauty? Is
it because the gift has deep sentimental value? Why is it so hard for you
to imagine being without this item that until recently you never had in
your possession? Have you imperceptibly slipped into being possessed by
that object?
If you are truly honest you will admit that when faced with the above
questions you rationalized many reasons as to why you should not part with
the particular item. That is our fallen human nature at work. With this
simple self examination we find that not only are we fighting against a
world that offers all that glitters, beeps, and tastes wonderful but also
against our fallen desires and a tempter who one moment is our advocate
and the next our accuser.
How can we live this radical call of Jesus? How can we detach ourselves
from everything to the point that we haven’t a care for anything except
Jesus? How do we get over the speed bump of being a “good person” and back
on the road to being a holy person?
Like the young novice we should constantly pray for detachment and then
stay awake so that we recognize when Christ is asking us to give up yet
one more thing. We should be ready to give everything away. Like the
novice we should be able to detach ourselves from anything regardless of
material or sentimental value. Finally, like the novice our main concern
should be with the one possession that rust does not affect and moth
cannot destroy. We should be concerned with the one possession that can
never be taken from us. We came into this world naked and with nothing but
we can take one thing with us when we leave and our life must be spent
being possessed by this one possession, Jesus Christ!
James M. Hahn is the Director of Religious Education at St. Michael
Church in Worthington, OH. He is the founder of Real Life Rosary and the
author of Rosary Meditations for Real Life available at
www.realliferosary.com. James lives in Southeast Ohio with his wife
and two children. He can be contacted at
webmaster@realliferosary.com.
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