It was not an unmitigated success, I am sorry to report.
A basket of edible goodies – sent by a thoughtful service provider to mark my recent birthday – included a stack of “super-thick” English muffins.
No doubt, the Marketing Department (hidden somewhere deep in the bowels of a commercial bakery) cooked up the concept: “If an ordinary English muffin is good, then a decadently endowed triple-thick version will be even better! An unforgettable savory sensation!”
Alas.
No amount of toasting said muffin managed to crisp its edges. And sadly, its “nooks and crannies” were non-existent: the surface of its fork-split interior was nearly as smooth as white bread, utterly incapable of holding the extra hit of peach preserves that every muffin-lover craves.
Ironically, making the muffin bigger didn’t make it better. In a sense, the extra bulk had robbed the muffin of its very reason-for-being. Its super-thickness had destroyed its soul.
Some Native Americans, I’m told, have a term – wetiko – to describe this condition. They consider wetiko a disease of the spirit: an appetite that can never be satisfied, consumption pursued purely for the sake of consumption.
Surely, curing us of this sort of disease is at least part of what Jesus is getting at when he teaches about the necessary discipline of pruning in this week’s gospel passage:
Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit…”
Less is sometimes more, Jesus says.
The triple-thick excesses in our lives really need to go.
Only then can we begin to see through this insidious fog of over-consumption, and respond with grateful hearts to the truth of God’s providence, ever at work in our lives.
Super-Thick Muffins: rather a BIG disappointment.
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 