I admit it. I am hard on Baxter sometimes. I know I make a big deal about his demanding attitude when he is hungry. But come to think about it, he really lives a rather simple life. He needs shelter, food and sleep, and he likes generous quantities of the last two. He is rather ingenious about his shelter. He likes soft surfaces for sleep, but he also enjoys the cool, hard floor tile to roll on his back and get a free scratch. His needs are straightforward and simple. He doesn’t ask for much beyond them.
Advent is a time to reflect on the simple things in life that sustain us. With all the competition for our attention during the holiday shopping season, it may be difficult to think about these, but we would do well to make the effort. When it comes down to it, what do we really need to make us happy? We like physical comfort and financial security. We may enjoy fancy food and pampered vacations. We want others to esteem us for our accomplishments and their fruits. Yet, none of these qualities of our life style can assure us happiness and peace. In fact, they can become sources of anxiety and frustration, because we can never be sure that enough is enough. There is always a better house or car, a little more money needed to expand our assets, a new restaurant to try or a new place to visit, and people’s opinions are so fickle we never know when they might think us “over the hill” or “has beens.”
What anchors us to life in a true and profound way are the relationships that identify us for who we are. We are who loves us and whom we love. As faithful Catholic Christians, we believe this starts with God who in Christ shows us love even unto death, death on a cross. But it doesn’t end there. In Christ’s Spirit, this love is shared, so that now we can love each other in God. Husband and wife, parents and children, friends, neighbors, the poor and needy are conduits of divine love for each other. Through our lives flows the very life-blood of God’s love for the world and each person in it. Christmas calls us to open these channels, and let the love of God pour forth through us.
What does that look like? It’s simple and straightforward. Appreciation and generosity, respect and value for others, honesty in our dealings, concern for the sick and weak, giving people a chance to share their talents, welcoming new persons with their ideas and ways as possibilities in our lives, these create a river of grace on which we can travel through life together. Without these qualities in our relationships, we get stuck with each other, living in the same space and just biding time together. We may share a lot of stuff in that space, but it is all clutter. The substance for a meaningful life is missing, and so is any genuine happiness and peace.
A simple life isn’t about how much we have or don’t have. It is about how we value whatever we have. Do we hold it in God to be used in loving others, or do we keep it for ourselves like trophies which rust and are forgotten? God preserves the good we have done by bringing it into our relationships with each other as instruments of His love. Christmas shows us what is truly valuable and important, if we pattern our relationships on how God worked to save us in becoming one with us. It’s so simple, and so profound. Take time to think about it. Baxter can help.
