The Ultimate Stimulus Package

As I wrote my pastoral letter, "The Church Sharing!" (available at www.diopitt.org), bishops are not economists. At least not this bishop. So please do not expect any pithy comments from me on how well the recently voted upon economic stimulus package by our Congress will work in addressing the hard times we are now facing.

I was surprised, however, that an early version of the bill included $200 million to fund contraceptives. There was no real explanation of how fewer kids would stimulate the economy. Thankfully, this idea got the axe pretty quickly. But it does reflect what George Will wrote in a recent Newsweek column — there’s a part of our culture that views the little ones as “wee parasites,” eating away at our economy.

That kind of thinking is what Pope John Paul II warned about when he spoke of the “culture of death” that afflicts too many secular societies today. Whenever it is decided that life is the problem — whether it be new life, the life of the sick or the life of the aged — we have created a far deeper and far more sinister problem.

But with that dangerous element removed from the stimulus bill, we can only hope that it is successful. Whatever our political perspective, no one can hope for failure. There are too many families on the edge, too many people facing loss of jobs, homes, savings and pensions for anyone to want the stimulus package to fail just to win a political argument. Failure means a lot of misery.

That said, it is interesting to realize that when we are facing great difficulties in our society, the only real answer we seem to have is to throw money at the problem. Secularism doesn’t offer a lot of alternatives. If the problem can’t be solved by dollars, then it can’t be solved in a secular society, or at least that’s what some would have the many believe.

This is something that has plagued us for any number of years now. There is so much that we face as a society that is, at heart, a spiritual deficiency, if not a true spiritual crisis. Addiction problems will never be cured by money. Crime has never been countered by money. Marriages aren’t salvaged by an influx of cash. Pornography exists because of the money it generates. It will only dry up if and when the money for it dries up. And the money will dry up only when people come to terms with pornography’s debilitating effects and the spiritual bankruptcy at the heart of it.

Spiritual bankruptcy

Some months ago, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, reflected on the economic crisis not only in the United States but worldwide as he wisely raised the question: Is it not spiritual bankruptcy that threatens the world and not financial bankruptcy?

Money may prop up failing businesses, a failing auto industry, a failing banking system for awhile. But money will not solve greed and envy, pride and hate — the capital sins that probably have as much to do with the economic crisis as any economic flow chart or corporate bottom line.

We need to recognize — both personally and as a society — that so much of humanity’s fears and failures only have a spiritual solution. The world looks different — because it is different! When we are alive in the Spirit, our faith is truly lived in every aspect of our lives.

We have just begun the Lenten season, a time of penance and spiritual renewal. Lent has its Scriptural roots in the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert before he began his public ministry: “At once, the Spirit drove him out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for 40 days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:12-13). Scripture scholars will note that the word “drove” used in that passage literally describes the Holy Spirit being with Jesus to drive the devil out of the world.

Lent has always been a season of preparation for celebrating the risen Christ at Easter. Lent was traditionally associated with the public penance of those who had committed great sins. It was also traditionally the time of prayer and fasting of the “catechumens” who were to be baptized and received into the church at Easter.

Time to draw together

Here is the wonderful thing. When the faithful witnessed at Easter the great joy of sinners forgiven and the great joy of those newly welcomed into the church, they wanted to be “part of the action.” There was an overwhelming desire of the faithful to share both in the sorrow and penitence of those great public sinners. There was an overwhelming desire of the faithful to be with the catechumens in their time of preparation. The whole church would join together in penance and preparation so that the church — the whole church, all the faithful — might be “bursting at the seams” with joy at Easter. Lent is the time for us to draw together, to admit to and confess our sins, to grow in an understanding of the Gospel, to share in service to others — a time to prepare for Easter through the mutual Lenten gifts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

Maybe this Lent all of us need our own spiritual “stimulus package.”

• Lent is a “stimulus” to take a look inside ourselves, always with the knowledge that who we are is what Jesus sees and that who we can become is who Jesus wants us to be.
• Lent is a “stimulus” to look outside ourselves, as Jesus taught, to sacrifice something of ourselves for others.
• Lent is a “stimulus” to return to regular confession.
• Lent is a “stimulus” for more acts of charity.
• Lent is a “stimulus” for more prayer.
• Lent is a “stimulus” for a hunger for spiritual growth, made easier by fasting and abstinence from things we really don’t need and shouldn’t want.

Lent is “the Ultimate Stimulus Package” — one from which we can all benefit. That’s the kind of stimulus package that guarantees success — true heavenly success.