The Spirituality of Subtraction - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Father Mathew's Homily:

True disciples love God even when He annoys us!

Mother Theresa of Calcutta had a dream. She told her superiors; "I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage." "Sister Theresa," her superiors chided gently," you cannot build an orphanage with three pennies. With three pennies you can do nothing!" "I know," she said, smiling, “but with God and three pennies I can do anything."

We can see a similar scenario in today's Gospel. It is about feeding a big crowd of people. The disciples wondered how they could feed a big crowd with limited resources. Jesus took what was available. With five barley loaves and two small fishes, He fed 5,000 people and then He had some leftover.

There are many layers of meaning to this story. Two things struck my mind. First is the attitude of Jesus: When there is a humanitarian crisis in our midst, it is cruel to pretend that we don’t see it and walk away. The other important thing is that no gesture in meeting the needs of people is too small.

In contrast to the attitude of Jesus, the attitude of the disciples is very striking. Philip seems to throw up his hands saying, “How can this be possible? Jesus, are you crazy that you want to feed this multitude? Don’t you know that you cannot feed them with 200 paydays worth of salary? Let them go their way.” Many of us reflect the attitude of Philip: Everything is drastic and negative for them.

Then there was Andrew who came to Jesus and says, "There's a small boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish." He knew that it wasn't much, but for Jesus it was enough. Andrew is an optimist.

Attitude determines our success or failure." There are many people who live with a negative attitude to the world and people. They dig their own holes and perish in the hole they dig for themselves. They are more part of the problem than the solution.

What is very impressive is the attitude of the little boy. He shared everything he had. He had five loaves and two fish. He gave them all. This is exactly what we see on the cross. Look at this cross. He gave it all. Jesus even gave up His life for us. Here is a great example of the spirituality of subtraction.

I borrowed the concept of “the spirituality of subtraction” from Fr. Richard Rohr. Have you ever heard about Fr. Richard Rohr? He is a popular contemporary writer, Franciscan capuchin priest, speaker and a spiritual giant who is widely known in the United States because of his sublime thoughts about spirituality.

Let me quote and explain the spirituality of Subtraction in Richard Rohr‘s own words:

“The notion of a spirituality of subtraction comes from Meister Eckhart (c.1260 -1327), the medieval Dominican mystic. He said the spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than it does with addition. Yet I think most Christians today are involved in great part in the spirituality of addition. (1)

Fr. Rohr continues:

“The capitalist worldview is the only world most of us have ever known. We see reality, experiences, events, other people, and things—in fact, everything—as objects for our personal consumption. Even religion, Scripture, sacraments, worship services, and meritorious deeds become ways to advance ourselves—not necessarily ways to love God or neighbor.” (2)

Fr Rohr continues:

“The nature of the capitalist mind is that things (and often people!) are there for me. Finally, even God becomes an object for my consumption. Religion looks good on my resume, and anything deemed “spiritual” is a check on my private worthiness list. Some call it spiritual consumerism. It is not the Gospel.” (Richard Rohr, OFM)

It is in this context, we have to read the news that appeared yesterday:

The news is: “The Pope’s Popularity has plummeted in the United States from 76% to 59%.” Do you know why his popularity has fallen in the US? Because he has spoken against the spirituality of addition which many of us are fond of!

Why is there more of a negative attitude toward Pope Francis? At the same time that this news came out about the pope’s popularity, I happened to read a critique about the news by Jim Denison. Jim is a faithful Catholic and profound writer. Let me quote him:

“Whether liberal or conservative, you love the pope when he agrees with you. And he's been saying things that annoy both sides." So says church historian Christopher Bellitto, explaining Pope Francis's dramatic decline in popularity among Americans.”

“In recent months, the pope has stated that climate change is largely man-made, and has criticized economic systems that he believes drive global warming and exploit the poor. Now, two months ahead of the pope's first trip to the U.S., Gallup reports that his popularity has fallen from 76 percent to 59 percent. According to one observer, the poll reflects that "many American Catholics are more closely affiliated with their political party than their faith.”

Jim Denison continues in his article with a challenging question, “….Do we love the Lord when he agrees with us, but less when His Word annoys us? (Tweet this.)”

He further elaborates it as, “Our conditional commitments to our faith” and then adds, “Conditional commitment impoverishes our souls and eviscerates our witness. (Tweet this.) Our culture loves God only when he agrees with us. True disciples love God even when he annoys us. Which are you?”

Here is a great example of the “spirituality of subtraction” in today’s gospel, a young lad who gave away all he had; he gave it all: five loaves and two fish. Look at the cross; we can see the greatest example of the spirituality of subtraction. If we follow the example of the spirituality of subtraction as we see in today’s Gospel, we can perform miracles in the world.

What is your and my spirituality? Do you follow the spirituality of subtraction or the spirituality of addition? Is it true that my faith is conditional? Our culture loves God only when he agrees with us. True disciples love God even when he annoys us. Which are you? Which am I?

(1) In our culture, the “good life” means getting more. Our self-worth is determined by how much we add to our life; how much we possess in our life. Fr. Richard Rohr’s talks challenges listeners to subtract—to release whatever hinders us from siding with the cosmic Christ, whether that be in our inner world or our outer world . Father Rohr offers a daring vision which calls us to surrender, to liberation, to making room for real freedom.

(2) Any economic system, whether it is socialism or capitalism, without compassion is a transgression against humanity. The capitalism without compassion regards everything including human beings as objects. Pope Francis is not against capitalism; he is against capitalism without compassion. You must have heard in the news that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Think about a CEO who is making 45 million a year as the head of a corporation and his preoccupation is how he can make 50 million at the cost of others in the next year.

Or in an economic system, imagine a working mother delivering a baby is forced to report to work not having enough days to nurture her baby without maternity leave is another example of capitalism without compassion.