February 15, 2004

Duc in altum. Cast off into the deep. (Luke 5: 4.) That is what Lent is all about. It begins in two weeks. The seductive current of daily life is to live superficially, engaged in superficial matters, indulging superficial distractions, and aiming at superficial goals. Paradoxically, if we do not plunge into the depths of existence, we will become deeply depressed. True joy comes from asking deep questions, accepting deep answers, and living profound lives. Cardinal Newman’s novel Loss and Gain has a character, an academic dean, whose pronouncements are clear because they are shallow. The great Newman quotes the great Dr. Johnson: “All shallows are clear.” It is easy to settle for easy answers but it is also fatal to skim the surface of life, for that inevitably results in “lives of quiet desperation.”

Lent bids us to take the plunge. We are dust and shall return to dust, and yet Divine Providence raises us to the heights of glory once we have explored what is beneath the surface of existence. Deep spirituality does not consist in thinking of abstractions. Our Lord tells us that where our treasure is, there will be our hearts. Thus giving alms is essential, and not peripheral, to the profound life. A column in the Brooklyn Tablet on January 24 makes this point. The author, Bill Reel, says some very nice things about the Church of Our Saviour. Mr. Reel recalls that when he used to work in this area, he’d attend Mass but rarely left more than a few dollars in the collection. “I’m afraid I’ve always believed that salvation should be inexpensive, or that if it was expensive then mine should be subsidized.” On a recent Sunday he and his wife visited here and put twenty dollars in the offering. After dining at a local restaurant, they marveled that the bill for the two of them was $52 including tip: ‘What a bargain!” It dawned on him: Our Catholic faith is priceless. “Would I be pleased to give as much for a soul-nourishing Mass and uplifting sermon as I’d pay for a palate-satisfying dinner? If not, why not? Those are embarrassing questions. Truthful answers could prove humiliating.”

Our Lord humbles us with the truth about His glory and our weakness. Then he raises us to glory. If we feel humiliated instead of humbled, shamed instead of inspired, it is because we are superficial. It would be most superficial to think we can buy our way to heaven by generous offerings of money, without confession of sin. It is just as superficial to pretend that we can give God our hearts without giving him our treasure. Of the thousands of confessions a priest hears, which edify him and inspire him to making his own confession, rarely does he hear the neglect of almsgiving confessed as a sin.

Fr. George W. Rutler