29th Ordinary
October 18, 2009
Are You a WALKING CORN CHIP
or
a LIVING CHRIST-IMAGE?
by
Paul Rooney
Mark 10:35-45
“You are what you eat.” Well, did you know that foods like ketchup, salad dressing, soda pop, cookies and chips all contain Corn, usually derived from corn syrup additives?
I think that most of us here have heard of Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who appears on CNN as their Chief Medical Correspondent. He took a look at the old saying, “You are what you eat” to see if there was any truth to the proverb. He discovered that scientists have already found a way to determine what kind of food you are eating, by doing a special carbon test. One scientist took a strand of Dr. Gupta’s hair, and did a test that looks for a particular kind of carbon. It turned out that 69% of the carbon came from Corn! Furthermore, that is typical for Americans.
So the scientist’s conclusion was one that we can all visualize in our imagination: he says that we are all like “corn chips walking” – a giant Nacho, if you will – because we all have a very large fraction of corn syrup in our diets. And because of our lack of awareness about the impact of processed foods with corn syrup high in fructose sweeteners, it is contributing to increased rates of obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes in the United States. (1)
Now it seems pretty obvious that the proverb is correct, when it comes to our physical condition: “You are what you eat.” But today let’s look at it from a spiritual level. Let’s use different words, which really mean the same thing. Think about it this way (and this is the sentence that I would like you to take home today) – “We become what we receive.” If something as common as Corn Syrup can cause such changes in us physically, what is affecting us spiritually? Exactly what is it that we are “receiving”? Does it enable us to become Servants, or Masters? This is what our Gospel is all about today – how we need to prepare to be a Servant for others! It takes a lot of prayer and self-humbling to recognize this as a Calling from God! Our example of course is Jesus – not only a Servant, but a Suffering Servant.
You all know that the things that affect us Spiritually are received by us through our eyes and our ears. So during your normal day and night, exactly at what or at whom are you looking? And to what or to whom are you listening?
The Media, especially the TV programming and Movie offerings that we are exposed to, are bombarding us with immoral filth, misinformation, self-serving propaganda and unethical values. They will continue to feed you this garbage, for as long you keep watching it and listening to it! And they can measure it accurately by their surveys; so don’t blame just the Media – the Users are even more to blame! The cyber-world of computers is even worse, if that is possible. The dangers to one’s spiritual well-being are not just aimed at the young; they are aimed at all of us! Never underestimate the perseverance of the Evil One! He wants you to be a prisoner in his camp of sin! But Jesus and his true disciples taught us how to deal with that.
The Saints knew how to deal with abuse of the body, the Corn Chip problem; they also knew how to deal with abuse of the soul! It was quite simple, when you think about it: they would discipline their bodies through fasting and abstinence. This, in turn, would help them tend to the spiritual journey of their souls. They learned this technique from Holy Scripture! And there lies a clue for each one of us! For example, today is the memorial of St. Luke on the saints’ calendar. Luke presents Jesus as fasting to prepare for his encounter with temptations, and also as a preparation for his ministry. Another good example is St. Anthony (whose name a lot of you received at Baptism or Confirmation). Anthony made good use of the spiritual practice of fasting, which enabled him to devote more attention to his prayer life, including God’s holy word in scripture. We can all take a lesson from St. Anthony, and above all from Jesus, and pay more attention to what we receive – whether it be physical food or spiritual food.
Our liturgies in the Roman Catholic Church are designed just for this purpose: to guide us in what we need to listen to, and what we need to receive. It is God’s holy word that we need to listen to, and study – not just on Sunday, but every day possible! Even five minutes is better than nothing! But compare the time spent exercising spiritually with the amount of time you spend exercising physically. Where are your priorities? Our God wants to talk to us; he wants to remind us about how much he loves us! We become what we receive!
In the same manner, we receive the Bread of Life during our Liturgy! Jesus chose to empower us with his very Being, his Real Presence, and we receive him in the Holy Eucharist! Can you think of a better food to prepare us for eternal life, eternal food that enters into every fiber of our being? We become what we receive!
And then the light bulb goes off! We discover that it isn’t a “What,” but rather a “Who”! We become WHO we receive! God did not create us to be “Corn Chips Walking.” He created us to be “Christ Images Walking”! We become Christ-ians in the fullest sense. This is the mission, the responsibility of every baptized disciple of Christ. We are to spread the love of Jesus by the way we talk, the way we act, and the way we respond. We are called to Serve each other with the love of Jesus – this is the life of a Servant! The wonderful thing about imitating the life of Jesus, and imitating the lives of the Saints, is that the practice can help us with both our Corn Chip problem, and with our spiritual growth!olHo
So this week perhaps we can all focus on the maxim, “We become what we receive” - - and then take positive steps to grow in our Christ-life, a life of Service and Servanthood.
Reference:
1. http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/22/kd.gupta.column/index.html
(Comments to Paul at deaconpaul@cox.net )
Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha