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Georgette, our honorary Minnesotan sweating away (we know about that, don't we) in Hyderabad, India, Chronicle of a Meandering Traveller" is recovered from many travels and weddings and between designing hi-rises is musing today on beauty and simplicity in architecture and Catholic Spirituality.
But ask any architect--it is not a simple thing to be simple (regardless of the style one uses). It really does take a lot of thought, analysis and effort to simplify a design down to its essense and functionality while retaining aesthetics. It is the same for a poem or story, or anything both creative and practical: "fussy" is less appealing because it takes less effort. The real genius comes in searching out what is frivolous and being able to do away with it, without destroying what one means to convey.
So, too, it is for us in the spiritual life. Doing away with the frivolous and keeping only what is important is what we are called to do.
Jesus and Mary lived this way. St Francis of Assisi surely understood it; so did Mother Theresa of Calcutta. It consists of an embracing of poverty-- which is a tough thing for our modern material world to comprehend. But there is a freeing that comes from having less. Even if we may "have a lot" in comparison to the impoverished in this world, we can still be "poor in spirit", which is what living simply really means. Ridding ourselves of the material-- as well as the spiritual-- clutter in our lives, and being generous with those who are in need.
Getting rid of all the material "stuff" in our homes and closets, offices or garages means we have more time and less distraction to look for God in the simple things. It strips the material world down to the important things that should command our attention: nature, our families, our friends and neighbors, and our God-given gifts and talents.
But it is not easy to do and perhaps impossible to maintain unless we simultaneously do the same thing in our souls by getting rid of the "clutter" there: the faults and "pet sins" which keep us attached to the material stuff. blogging at "
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1 comment:
Fine--so long as spiritual questers like this don't impose their views on the natives. India has a long and rich spiritual heritage, in which ascetism has played an important. But ordinary Indians are finally getting ahead and having easier lives, because the Indian economy has finally ditched socialism and the Mahatma and embraced micro-capitalism and the consumer society. It's no fair for Westerners to pull up the ladder after themselves.
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