The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house.He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!" And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”. Isaiah 44:12-17.
Life, when examined, in thirds...
ITEM (stage) 1 - Work is fine, but how long can you really continue to have strength in what you're doing unless you properly sustain yourself by refreshment and nutrition that comes from outside yourself that renews your capacity for doing well?
ITEM (stage) 2 - Work isn't the only reason we're here. As the body is nourished by food and drink, so should deeper needs be addressed with means that will 'speak' within our homes (our lives) about something more. There is a need within for more than immediate satisfaction, and for merely spending our days in labour. Beauty calls to us in our longing for significance... but we need to be careful where such inclinations can carry us.
ITEM (stage) 3 - There's nothing so foolish in this life as the miss-direction of our religious inclinations. We don't usually make material statues any longer that we deem to be representations of some 'god' we like, but we continually make beliefs, goals and surroundings for ourselves that accommodate and allow for gods of our devising to rule and direct us in countless ways (just watch this intriguing debate between Jordan Peterson and Susan Blackmore to see just how 'religious' atheism can be).
The third example, of course, conveys just how ridiculous such use of our misguided religious propensities can be, but notice something in this entire passage - immediate requirements (work, replenishment) take us all in the same direction - towards needing to satisfy even deeper needs, and the point the Prophet is making is how stupid it is for us to try and furnish and satisfy that vast appetite with something that is clearly not going to cut it, because there is so much more that needs to be answered and obtained for us to be what we were made to be.
This past year has left us all seeking to fulfil the basic demands of item 1, whilst constantly seeking to break out again, when and where possible, to stage 2 (having some engagement that has been just more than surviving), but where are we now with stage 3? Has the crisis taught us anything about how mute and foolish our regular 'gods' have been? Have we learned that any genuine spirituality has to draw from very deep roots to be able to sustain us through trials like this.
John tells us in His Gospel that on the last day of the feast in Jerusalem, Jesus raised His voice in the temple and cried "Listen, anyone who thirsts - anyone who believes on me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water!" (John 7:38).
One of the greatest joys of life is when we reach a point where we cease to be someone who is merely taking from everyone else, but actually begins to give to them in a rich and meaningful way - to enrich all by the gifts and treasures we have to share. That is the result of truth at work - we love, because we are truly loved, and that beauty allows us to truly become ourselves. It's essential that our relationship to what is above us and around us becomes whole.
Escaping the pain and the misery of the present can truly begin when we have our gaze, our insights, fixed beyond ourselves and our petty ambitions to truly see the face of God, revealed in His beloved Son.
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