Obtaining more and more of...
Illustration
Obtaining more and more of that which is supposed to make us feel secure often only increases our insecurity.
A person who owns absolutely nothing, whose home is a hut and whose resources are nothing more than daily bread and the clothes on one's back need never lock one's door. How can thieves steal what one does not have? The "insecurity" of living hand-to-mouth becomes a "security" against thieves.
If one, however, gets "ahead" and accumulates material goods, things one feels must be "protected," one gets a lock on the door. Such a person feels much less "secure" in one sense of the term than one who has nothing.
When those material goods become enough in number and the house becomes much larger, one gets a security system for protection. One must protect one's property since a far greater insecurity sets in over against the "security" of the wealth that is now building considerably.
Once the material goods become immense, one hires bodyguards for self and family, for by now everyone is in a "peril" of sorts as the "security" has made life quite "insecure" in another sense of the term. Now one must guard one's very self zealously, not just one's property!
Where "treasures on earth" are highly valued, where "thieves break in and steal," one never rests "securely." The things we "treasure" are in constant risk -- they can, and sometimes are, taken from us quite easily!
Ash Wednesday in particular, and Lent in general, reminds us of that. "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
A person who owns absolutely nothing, whose home is a hut and whose resources are nothing more than daily bread and the clothes on one's back need never lock one's door. How can thieves steal what one does not have? The "insecurity" of living hand-to-mouth becomes a "security" against thieves.
If one, however, gets "ahead" and accumulates material goods, things one feels must be "protected," one gets a lock on the door. Such a person feels much less "secure" in one sense of the term than one who has nothing.
When those material goods become enough in number and the house becomes much larger, one gets a security system for protection. One must protect one's property since a far greater insecurity sets in over against the "security" of the wealth that is now building considerably.
Once the material goods become immense, one hires bodyguards for self and family, for by now everyone is in a "peril" of sorts as the "security" has made life quite "insecure" in another sense of the term. Now one must guard one's very self zealously, not just one's property!
Where "treasures on earth" are highly valued, where "thieves break in and steal," one never rests "securely." The things we "treasure" are in constant risk -- they can, and sometimes are, taken from us quite easily!
Ash Wednesday in particular, and Lent in general, reminds us of that. "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
