A message for those so impacted by Michael Jackson's death

Via that master wordsmith, Gerard Vanderleun:

It seems to me that the hundreds of millions now addicted to "celebrity" are like those addicted to a heroin of the soul. Like heroin, "celebrity" must be taken in ever increasing doses to fill a hole in the user's soul. And just like heroin, "celebrity" doesn't fill anything but only increases the emptiness. Which, of course, only increases the need and requires an ever larger dose of the illusion; of the shrieking unquiet voices.

That's a pearl right there and of course, I think his entire piece needs to be read if one seeks understanding.

I can remember many years ago being told that we're each born with a Christ-sized hole in our soul that only Christ can fill and that man's problem is that too many times, he attempts to fill that hole with something that can never fully fill it.  Methinks Gerard is saying the same thing.

Me also thinks that though Christ fills that hole in our soul, there are times when He seems to 'vacate the premises' so to speak and lo and behold, we set out again to fill the hole with other things.

The people who are so distraught by the death of a celebrity are people who, at this time in their lives, have filled that hole with something much less than truly filling.  My inclination, one I succumb to too often, is to make these people the objects of ridicule when in fact, they should become subjects for prayer.

Something I need to remember the next time I find myself succumbing to my inclinations... perhaps an indication that the hole in my own soul needs additional filling... not just with any filler but with The Only Filler.

Thanks Gerard.

Comments

[Morgan K Freeberg]

Wyatt Earp: What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?
Doc Holliday: A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.
Wyatt Earp: What does he need?
Doc Holliday: Revenge.
Wyatt Earp: For what?
Doc Holliday: Bein' born.

[Shifty1]

Does Christ "vacate the premises" for a seasnon, or do we evict Him? I know, that for me, it's always the latter....much to my detriment!

[Rick]

Good point Shifty... perhaps it only seems to us that He's left...

[chuck aka XtnYoda]

LOVE that line Morgan, "Being Born."

And Rick and Shifty... it's probably some of both and not either/or...

"He would have passed them by..."

"...don't be conformed to this world but rather be transformed..."

[Tim Chesterton]

I don't think he vacates the premises but I do think that sometimes he withdraws the tangible sense of his presence. Why would he do that? Probably to teach us to walk by faith and not by feelings. This is a well-known experience in the Christian tradition (you see it in the psalms a lot); St. John of the Cross called this 'The Dark Night of the Soul'.

My former bishop, Victoria Matthews, once preached a brilliant sermon about this. It was based on Psalm 42 (the one that begins 'As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God'). She said that as Christians we had to 'cultivate our longing for God' and to resist the temptation to fill that empty space with anything else, even if that meant leaving it empty for a while. I loved the way she phrased that: 'cultivate our longing for God'. Wise words, I thought at the time, and still do.

[Mommynator]

Now there's a sermon I would have loved to have heard, Mr. Chesterton.