The other day I met a local business man who has been in the fashion trade for most of his lifetime. As we started talking, he let the steam out and announced the closing down of his successful outlets. “It’s not about success” he said in a low voice, “I’m simply fed up, my life doesn’t make much sense as it is. I have been absorbed in my business all of the best years of my life and now I’m almost spent.”

As I empathised with his sense of frustration and despair I recalled what Cardinal John Henry Newman used to say, “Fear not that your life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.” The poor man was desperately searching for meaning. His outward image and material achievements were being challenged by his inward emptiness and purposelessness. “For man does not live by bread alone, but from every word that comes from the mouth of God” answered the Son of God when tempted by the evil one to turn the stones into bread.

The world is spiritually starved. People are realising that the thrill of excessive material possessions, bodily obsessions and success at all cost is slowly losing its magical power, water that does not quench our thirst. We are in a time of awakening to the Way, the Truth and the Life which sets us free, which liberates us from deadly attachments that deprive us of our internal peace and joy. We are in a time where we can no longer ignore that small still voice inside us which is craving to be listened to… to make us realise that created things are not an end in themselves, but only a means to a higher level of consciousness and awareness of life.

Spiritual starvation is to travel life’s journey disengaged from our unique divine calling which yearns to guide us into a meaningful and purposeful life where we are liberated from our self-centeredness, a life where we offer our gifts and talents for the benefit of others, for a better world and sense of fraternity as one people of God. To be spiritually starved is to be puffed up with pride, content only with temporary worldly pleasures. To be spiritually starved is to betray our precious birthright as children of God for created things that fail to radiate that true joy in our hearts.

The well known spiritual guru Jesuit Anthony De Mello, in one of his famous conferences on ‘awareness’ said “Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They are born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, and they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all Catholic, Christian and non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion, are unanimous on one thing, that all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well.”

Feeding the body without feeding the spirit will only lead to an unbalanced life. Ignatian spirituality places emphasis on ‘finding God in all things’ and ‘contemplation in action’ where we encounter a sense of the divine infused in everything we do and from all the people we meet. We come to realise that every action, whether we are at work, serving others or simply enjoying ourselves is impregnated with the love of God and is permitted for us to grow in His love.

But to grow in this awareness we have to quiet our restless selves. We have to give a shock to our programmed operating systems by withdrawing from our routine schedules and daily chores for a period of silence and meditation, to be at one with God and ourselves. We have to stand still and acknowledge the mystical presence of God. And instead of babbling our way through some heavy conversation, we simply stand still until the Divine chooses to speak his voice into the depths of our beings. We join the Psalmist who proclaims “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? The imagery in the Bible of a ‘stream’ is often used to describe God’s transforming power. As streams can turn a dry land into a place that is flourishing with life and is a fertile ground for growth, so God wants to give us an abundant meaningful life that overflows with his love, character and good purposes.

Spiritual starvation creeps in when we begin to skip reading and meditating on God’s Word. We have eyes but do not see, we have ears that do not hear. The spirit is starved when we no longer participate in spirit-building events and fellowship, replacing them for secular events and activities. As we become spiritually weak, we become vulnerable to attacks, lacking motivation and desire for the things of God, confused of who we are, depleted of wisdom and discernment and run the risk of being misled by every wind of teaching. Many who thirst for meaning are already being tossed about with different currents of false doctrines, others have been trapped into false pretentiously ‘prophetic’ philosophies and some have even fallen into the dark pits of religious sects and organisations which betray the truth.

The time is ripe for committed Christians to stand up and be counted. There is no room for complacency and it is about time to wake up from the big sleep and re-examine the many religious ritualistic ceremonies that are carried out for the sake of tradition without bearing much fruit. The latter will only have significance if infused with an on-going and mature nourishment of the spiritual life. The supposedly religious feasts, especially the way they are being celebrated, and the many other annual religious events which are, sometimes, capitalised by some for generating business, are becoming detestable and we run the risk of being admonished by God once again as in Isaiah 1:-11..quote:-

“The multitude of your sacrifices- what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me…I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; when you spread out your hands in prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” It is a contrite heart that our Lord desires.

(This article was published in The Times in August 2009 – Author Gordon P Vassallo)