By John Park.
Throughout the ages certain individuals and religious sects have closed themselves off from society to follow a simple and contemplative life dedicated to some religious or spiritual ideal. We think of cloistered monks or nuns, who, in addition to observing strict religious practices, have also taken vows of poverty. Are those individuals nearer to their God or ideal than those who have chosen a different path? Do we need to give up material possessions in order to progress into a higher state of being?
For the Christian faith, the Bible teaches many things about material goods. Jesus spoke much about the poor, but he never said that becoming impoverished would lead to a state of grace. To one individual, he said “go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor … [and] follow [him].” However, Jesus was not an ascetic, and he pointed out that he was regarded by some as a “glutton and a drunkard.” Further, he spoke about the need for being a good steward of “worldly wealth.” Specifically, he is purported to have said: “make friends for yourselves of worldly wealth. . . . If, then, you have not been faithful in handling worldly wealth, how can you be trusted with true wealth?” He also said, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [material goods] will be added to you.” This was a man who lived in the moment; who advocated neither poverty, hoarding, nor ostentatious living. Later in the New Testament it states that it is “the love [my italics] of money [that] is the root of all evil,” not the possession of it.
Perhaps, if the goal of religious practice strictly relates to a future salvation, it would seem reasonable to rid one’s self of the material accoutrements of this present life as fast as possible. But the original meaning of “salvation” in the Bible relates to “transformation of ourselves and the world” this side of the grave (see Speaking Christian by Marcus Borg, 2011). For me, that doesn’t sanction a philosophy of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die;” but, together with other Bible messages, rather points toward living life in all its richness, with moderation and with a true spirit of love for one another. It also means that in consonance with other teachings in the Bible, one pursue the spiritual ideas that lead to transformation of thought.
My sense of things as a Christian Scientist is that we consider our spiritual life as always being in heaven. Cultivating our spiritual senses, transforms thought to see and feel that heaven. I don’t see progress out of our present worldview being attained by denying who we presently appear to be. We cannot be more than we presently understand nor less, and so cannot force a state of grace, or blindly proclaim that which we cannot yet see. And too, just as we can’t solve a problem in mathematics without using its material symbols, we can’t solve the “problem of being” without the contexts and touchstones that presently give us meaning. So we cannot deny the present usages of the material world until we’re ready, through understanding, to take the next progressive steps, either here or hereafter.
I tend to think that material things will naturally drop away when they’re no longer useful – when they’ve been replaced by more useful concepts gained through understanding. All this leads me to think that rather than attaining grace by living without life’s necessities, it is more wise to grow in grace and to thus lose our dependence on the material things we currently think of as necessities in a natural manner.
John Park was a Geophysicist with the federal government in the Earth Physics Branch and the Geological Survey for 30 years. A life-long Christian Scientist, he is now a Christian Science practitioner of spiritual healing. He is also a chaplain at the University of Victoria.
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