Nativity Catholic Church
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Making Room So "The Necessary
May Speak" We’ve been having some good-natured fun in our parish office this past week or so, as we have watched our “new” Director of Religious Education move her belongings from one building to another. Not that we haven’t tried to be helpful in assisting in this arduous task, but Lynda has kindly declined our well-intentioned aid—mostly out of fear that we would somehow “lose” a good bit of her stuff as we made the trek to the RE building! Fact of the matter is, Lynda was so concerned about a few of us packing things up and shipping them off ahead of her return from vacation that our parish Business Manager was charged with standing guard over Lynda’s things. So much for trust (but probably wise)! In all fairness, Lynda is certainly not the first or the last person to “collect” things! Clearly, after only a perfunctory tour of the parish offices, you would see that no one on the present parish staff is lacking in equipment or accessories in their workspace. A young visitor to the pastor’s inner sanctum, most likely on the occasion of his first reconciliation a few months ago, astutely referred to my office as a “museum”! I’m not sure whether that was due to the many interesting and engaging things he saw…or whether it was simply the sheer volume of stuff that captured his imagination (I think both would be true). There are people who actually make a living helping others clean up their act—or at least their home or workspace. A whole “organizing” industry has been developed around handling all of our accumulations. Everything from “California closets” to professional sorters, who happily assist their clients with everything from labeling boxes with Martha Stewart aplomb, to setting up garage sales, to suggesting the best storage facilities with perfect climate control. Sorting and making room, cleaning and readjusting, sifting and disposing are simply part of life’s journey; it’s just that some of us are more open to it, on a fairly regular basis, and some of us resist it with a vehemence equal to that of avoiding a root canal. And it’s just not about “things” like files, papers, knick-knacks, extra shoes or overgrown wardrobes, mementos and old yearbooks. It’s about other baggage we acquire as we make our way through life—growing and maturing, living and learning, failing and succeeding. While the “simple life” may have gotten a bad name due to the ridiculous “reality” show that has given more fame to two rich, spoiled brats than is necessary, there is probably something inside most of us that still pines for a simple life—one in which the things that really matter, the true soul-stirrings at the depths of our being, and the honestly “necessary” pieces of our lives can rise to the surface, come up for fresh air from underneath the weight of the suffocating overload of stuff that fills our days, so they can be examined, given gratitude for, tended to, and loved. The artist Hans Hofmann once wrote: “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” What a beautiful definition of “simplifying.” Yet within his very definition rests the struggle—determining the “unnecessary” from the “necessary.” Once we have clung to things for a long enough time, somehow they all seem “necessary.” Sometimes we attach the label “necessary” to things simply because “that’s how we were raised,” or “that’s what I was told.” Things become “necessary” at times because we see no alternative to a life without them; we have not yet had the imagination or energy to see a new way that leaves the old trappings behind. Sometimes, we cower to divest of something because of who may have given it to us, or because of the circumstances by which we received it. Some things, although untouched for ages, remain “necessary” in our catalog because they “cost” too much, the remnants of a whole lot of investment on our part. All these, and many more reasons exist for holding on. The fear of labeling something “unnecessary” applies not only to inanimate stuff but also to thoughts, feelings, behaviors, perceptions, and memories. Indeed, the “necessity” of a move may be the only thing that prods us to open up the storage places in our lives and to take a long, hard look at what we find—and then begin the arduous task of simplifying, of letting “the necessary” speak, so that our lives may become more focused, more peaceful, more loving, less stressful, and more liberated. While life for most of us in this modern world, although dreamily alluring, is a long way from Jesus’ instructions to his apostles and disciples to “carry no travel bag, wear only one pair of sandals, and skip the extra tunic,” there is plenty of room…and time…to face all that cries out to us as “necessary” and to rename those things for what they really are—“unnecessary.” Only then, can we divest ourselves of those things—belongings as well as behaviors—that weigh us down. Too often, the imposters shout down the “necessary” pieces for living life abundantly, as Jesus promised by his presence among and within us. In order to refocus and to begin again to live the life Jesus brings, it seems then, there’s no time like the present to do a little house cleaning, a little office moving. Spring-cleaning isn’t really limited by the month showing on the calendar. Simplifying is a virtue in any season. Is there something “necessary” buried underneath your clutter that is gasping to speak and be heard?
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