Consumed
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Today, on the solemnity we call Black Friday, I thought it was a good opportunity to talk about consumerism.
Now, this isn’t a condemnation of those of us doing some Christmas shopping or checking Amazon for deals. But I was thinking about this pattern we see everywhere: we consume, and then we are consumed.
We can see this take a negative form with materialism. The more we consume, the more we are consumed. The more we shop, the more we buy, the more we want. The more we need.
We shop. We buy. We want. We desire. And somewhere along the way, the wanting takes over. We’re not just consuming—we’re being consumed by it. By the next thing, the better thing, the thing we think will finally satisfy.
But there’s a positive side to this pattern. There’s another kind of consumption worth having.
Our Lord in the Eucharist. We consume Him, and in doing so, we are consumed.
Not in a way that empties us, but in a way that fills us. Not in a way that leaves us wanting more stuff, but in a way that leaves us wanting more of Him.
One kind of consumption leaves us hollow. The other makes us whole.
On this Black Friday, maybe it’s worth asking: what’s consuming you?