Nativity Catholic Church
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A Spirituality of Subtraction Math never has been . . . nor will it ever be my subject! When I pastored a parish with a school, I used to experience involuntary shudders when I passed by a classroom in which a math class was taking place. Sometimes, when I planned to enter a classroom to pay a little visit, I nonchalantly approached the window in the classroom door, made a quiet survey of the writing on the chalkboard, and determined if it was safe enough to enter. If I detected numbers, formulae or “problems” on the board, it’s as if a brilliantly lit neon sign ignited in my head: “DANGER! DANGER! THIS ZONE IS NOT SAFE TO ENTER!” I then slipped away as quietly as possible. If caught in the act, I simply feigned that I was checking the scratches on the Plexiglas window, or that I was looking for someone who didn’t happen to be in the classroom at the time. While I say that Math has “never been my subject,” I must add, strangely enough, that I always (except in the sixth grade) received good grades in the courses I was forced to take. I suppose that my desire to “do well,” far outpaced my distaste for the subject matter. “Division” gave me headaches, the likes of which were worthy to send me to the nurse’s office on more than one occasion; “Multiplication” so disturbed me that, in the third grade, I resorted to my first attempt at cheating! I tried to hide my “times-tables” card between my legs while seated at my desk in order to have the answers for the rapid-fire quizzes Sister Mary Brian threw at us like a Nolan Ryan fastball. Problem was, the speed at which Sister hurled the “8-9-10” tables at us overpowered my eye-to-cheat-sheet coordination! I never did get caught with the manila card wedged between my then scrawny legs, but it ultimately served no purpose, other to give me a sore neck from all the bobbing up and down I was forced to do trying to keep up. “Subtraction,” while never posing the mental (or moral) dilemma that “Multiplication” did, never made sense to me either. I suppose, at an early age, I was much more interested in having “more than” rather than “less than”! Consequently, my only real successes on the battlefields of mathematics came in the trenches of “Addition.” I recently came across a cassette series by noted spiritual author and speaker, Fr. Richard Rohr, that caught my attention. At first, I nearly shied away from it because of its reference to mathematics in the series’ title: The Spirituality of Subtraction. The cassettes were advertised as good Lenten grist for the mill, so after allowing those involuntary shudders to pass and wiping the sweat from my brow, I gave the talks a quick once over. What a marvelous insight and challenge as we enter this Lenten journey of 40 days: our lives will become a more suitable receptacle for the wisdom of the Lord, for the grace of God if we stop our incessant urge to “add” and “multiply” and rather pursue a “spirituality of subtraction.” Can we in fact realize God’s abundance only while emptying ourselves? Can our lives in fact be touched by the richness of God only while taking away those things which ultimately are obstacles to a deeper relationship with the Lord? Rohr’s spiritual invitation is hardly “spiritual” in the traditionally mistaken sense. He isn’t talking about removing “thoughts and feelings”; he isn’t proposing subtracting distractions and replacing them with more “prayers” and recitations. He is talking about LIVING WITH LESS: Physically, emotionally, materially and spiritually! Rohr’s prophetic challenge goes right to the core of who we are as Americans — a people who long for, chase after, strive for and sell our souls for — MORE! Our whole economy, and its insidious way of infiltrating every aspect of our living, is built upon a rigorous cultivation of a desire to HAVE more, BE more, ACHIEVE more, WIN more. As a culture, we are quite skilled in the art of “Addition” and “Multiplication,” but weak in the art of “Subtraction,” the spirituality of subtraction. Perhaps this Lenten season, we may explore meaningful ways to hone our skills at dealing with “less than” rather than “more than.” Lent calls for a radical turn about, a significant about-face in the way we live. Clearly, the “Spirituality of Subtraction” provides a good slap in the face to make us turn around and take notice.
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