ON BEING INDEPENDENT

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Yesterday (Friday), as I was looking at the first lectionary reading for mass, I came across an interesting Greek word in First Timothy 6:6. The context is a warning about the dangers of attachment to material goods, and the writer advises autarkeia, a noun meaning "contentment, being satisfied with what one has, with ones circumstances." It comes from two roots: aut- ("self"), and ark- (satisfaction, contentment, sufficiency). The basic idea is self-sufficiency, in the sense that ones needs are satisfied. It is used in a phrase which is not the easiest to translate, the first line of the following passage:

Indeed, religion with contentment is a great gain.
For we brought nothing into the world,
just as we shall not be able to take anything out of it.
If we have food and clothing, we shall be content with that.
Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation 
and into a trap
and into many foolish and harmful desires,
which plunge them into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is the root of all evils,
and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith
and have pierced themselves with many pains. (1 Tim. 6:6ff)

 The "contentment" that should characterize our "religion," or "devotion" seems to me to refer to a lot more than simply the material temptations mentioned in the rest of the passage. My life in the monastery, for instance, is pretty simple on the material level -- no bank account, no paycheck, no bills -- not even any "possessions." But I still have plenty of temptations that can draw me away from devotion to the Lord. Worrying is a good one -- this draws me away from trusting devotion to God. Harboring unkind thoughts about others -- thinking ill of someone whom God loves infinitely doesn't

sound like a good way to build my relationship with the Lord. Or, how about impatience and upsetment over some trivial thing, over some tiny pebble in my shoe that starts to feel the size of a brick?  -- The virtue of "contentment, being satisfied with the circumstances of ones life" has flown out the window, and my devotion to the Lord has to be forgotten for the moment while I deal with the brick in my shoe.
So, you might think about that sentence, "religion with contentment is a great gain,"  and ask yourself if there are things in your life that leave you dissatisfied, distracted from your devotion to the Lord.


Don't forget, of course, that those very dissatisfactions can become the stuff of prayer when you "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).

consciously hand them over to the Lord: "Lord, I find this person so hard to put up with! Please help me to be less judgmental and help me to see her as you see her. Amen". Then, far from being a distraction, this "fault" becomes a subject of humble, intimate conversation with the Lord who invites you