Giving up Consumerism for Lent

Throughout most of my life, lent has always looked the same. I give up television, desserts, and usually only for the first day or two, hot showers.

I have been determined to make this lent different but struggled to find a way until the topic of consumerism fell on my ears.

In its most simplified form, I would say that consumerism is the ideology that enables and leads us to instant gratification, seeking the material object for the sake of itself, rather than for the love of God and neighbor.

Have you ever stopped to think about how you are interacting with creation?  Are you aware of the mission of man to sanctify and glorify all of creation and to bring it back to God?

In a fantastic work entitled The One Thing is Three, Fr. Michael Gaitley MIC writes:

"God created man to be the free and conscious savior of creation. Indeed, man's vocation was to bring the creatures of earth back to God, because they couldn't do it on their own. Yes, these creatures could follow their own natures and approach God, but on their own, they couldn't fully rise to glory. For, that, they needed man".

This passage is filled with wonder. We are to be conscious saviors of creation, not because creation is bad, but because just like man, creation cannot be brought back into God on its own. 

Man's mission to redeem creation is a very biblical concept. Right from the beginning man was put in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.

Then, after the fall, God resolves to wipe out mankind for his wickedness. But what is definitively noted is that God plans on destroying the animals as well.

And the Lord God said, 'I shall rid the surface of the earth of the human beings whom I created -- human and animal, the creeping things and the birds of heaven -- for I regret having made them.'

Why would God destroy the other living beings who had not ever sinned? Weren't at least the birds of heaven in the same state of glory that they had been before the fall of man?

In fact, no part of the created earth retained its former state of glory after the fall because all of creation, save the angels, is dependent on man as its savior.  If man is destroyed then nature loses its potential to ascend to its intended glory.

So when God finds favor with Noah, it is not just Noah who he spares.  Noah is a righteous man who is capable of being a conscious savior of his family and of nature.  It is not through their own merit that the wife and children of Noah or the animals are spared from the great flood.  It the merit of Noah, who is consequently responsible for all of creation.  This places Noah in what is one of the most explicit types of Christ. Noah saves all of creation, and as head of the ark, representative of the Church, offers sacrifice to God when they ark lands on solid ground.

This first act of Noah in what can be described as the new creation expresses his commitment to being a conscious savior of creation.  Perhaps this sacrifice is what prompts God to promise to never flood the earth again.

Now that we are sufficiently off topic, what does this have to do with consumerism?

Plenty!

Consumerism leads us to grasp for objects in order to get something for ourselves, rather than in an effort to sanctify them.

Here are a few examples.

Imagine sitting down at the dinner table with your family to a full course dinner.  There are choice 6 oz steaks, marinated in red wine accompanied by cheesy baked potatoes and a carefully prepared vegetable dish.

The preparation of this meal takes time and concentration. It takes the knowledge and skill to season and artfully present.  This sort of meal is a sacrifice.  The consumption of the meal is pleasant, but the preparation is a kind of sacrifice.  That doesn't mean that the cook is miserable while doing it, he might enjoy every moment of it.  But sacrifice does not mean you are miserable. A sacrifice is a kind of offering.  A meal that is consciously prepared for particular persons to partake in, is an offering which I would classify as a sacrifice.

Compare this to the drive-thru at your favorite fast food place.
The food here is mass produced and sits around waiting to be heated or reheated at peak times of the day.  It is not specially prepared for the person waiting at the window, and trying to get an ingredient added or omitted is like a game of roulette.  There is nothing personal or about the process and the food is anything but nourishing.  At the end of the day, you have not received anything but temporary physical satisfaction.

Now, we do need to eat, and so obviously there is nothing wrong with eating and seeking a moderate amount of satisfaction.

However, this satisfaction should not be so easily divorced and isolated from the broader implications of a communal, intentionally prepared and consumed meal.

The communal aspect is key because man, as a relational being, always seeks communion and he is ultimately fulfilled and glorified when he enters into full communion with God.

In the same line of thought, it is also through communion that the rest of creation attains its intended glory.

When our pursuit of created goods loses an aspect of communion, we deprive creation of its potential glory.

This is not a complete deprivation, as any created good is elevated when it nourishes a human being, which is no small thing.

Nevertheless, a good savior seeks to redeem the entire thing, not only one aspect of it.  To stop sanctifying creation on the very first level is easy and requires nothing on the part of the consumer.

All of this being said, what do I mean by giving up consumerism and what does is look like practically?

Well in case you haven't guessed yet, fast food is out.  This means that when I spend all day away from home I need to plan better and make sure I have all of my meals prepared from home and packed with me.  Again, even this might not be perfect, but I can still maintain a sense of community at home while preparing my meals for the next day.

And if for some reason I find myself unexpectedly out and need a bite, there's always a full sit down restaurant option.  It's still eating out, but the full restaurant allows a lot more possibilities for connection with persons and a more reflective experience.  And I should be able to afford it since I'll still have the money from the last five times I didn't get fast food.

Second, shopping on Amazon is out.  Is there a chance that I might need something that I can only get for a reasonable price on Amazon before Easter? I guess, but that isn't very likely.

More beneficial to me and other persons would be for me to go to an independent business to buy what I need.  This benefits the other person and creates a connection that an impersonal purchase from a gigantic company like Amazon could never simulate, even with slightly lower prices.

Again, maybe I have to grab something at Wal-Mart instead of the local privately owned grocery store.  Not all bad, I still have the opportunity for real human contact, provided that I fight the introverted urge to use the self-checkout line.

I could go on, but I want to leave this brief recap.

We are called, from the beginning, to be conscious saviors of creation and to bring everything in our stewardship back to God, just as Christ saves us and brings us back into communion with God.

Consumerism leads us to use creation for our own gratification instead of glorifying creation and God through creation.

We fight consumerism by re-personalizing our experiences of the consumption of goods.  By allowing creation to provide not only for our physical well being, but also to bring us together in communion, we sanctify and glorify creation.

This Lenten season, challenge yourself to sanctify creation and offer everything in your ark to God for His greater glory.