"Stuff" Need Not Possess Us

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent – March 17, 2015

ONCE some robbers came into the monastery and said to one of the elders: “We have come to take away everything that is in your cell.”

And he said: “My sons, take all you want.”

So they took everything they could find in the cell and started off. But they left behind a little bag that was hidden in the cell. The elder picked it up and followed after them, crying out: “My sons, take this, you forgot it in the cell!”

Amazed at the patience of the elder, they brought everything back into his cell and did penance, saying: “This one really is a man of God!”

[Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert, p. 59]

As a young boy, I learned that what is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours. If you take what is mine, that is stealing. If I take what is yours, that is stealing. I learned early to respect what you had, and to protect what I possessed.

Of course, there are ancient injunctions against stealing. The 8th of the Ten Commandments says simply, “Do not steal.” The Commandment intended to bring order into human relationships and to safeguard the poor from losing what little they had to the rich.

The Commandments do NOT intend that our possessions create divisions among us. Stuff is not meant to be hoarded and considered “mine”; rather, the things I have are to be in service of the community and the goods you have are to be used to serve others. We are stewards of the things we possess, and the one who has more has the greater obligation to share his/her abundance with others, especially with those who do not have.

What we possess is not intended to be solely for our benefit, but to be shared. It is to be freely available within the community. Few of us, though, live this way – including me.

Today’s story from the Desert Christians has long been one of my favorites. The monk’s behavior is entirely counter to the way most of us think. He carries a spirit of detachment, aware that what is “his” is not truly “his.” The monk was filled with such a generous and humble spirit that he offered to the “thieves” even more than they could take from him.

While most of us “possess stuff,” the monk demonstrated that his “stuff” did not possess him.


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