Everything’s a Hot Pocket

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I’ve become a fan of stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, one of whose best routines is about “Hotpockets,” the infamous turnover containing meat or cheese that you cook in a microwave. He’s merciless in his ridicule.

“I’ve never eaten a Hotpocket and said, ‘I’m glad I ate that,’” says Gaffigan. It comes with “a side of pepto,” he adds, noting that it’s especially yummy when “frozen in the middle.”

But in at least one version of his routine, he says, “Let’s face it, everything’s a hot pocket.”

I don’t know exactly what he meant, but one interpretation could be that we humans consistently get excited about stuff and after getting it realize it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Like addicts, we know better, but never seem to learn. We want stuff, are disappointed that it doesn’t satisfy us, and still want more.

The Best or Nothing?

This applies not only to “stuff,” but to money, recognition, sex, and yes, Hotpockets. Even “the best” doesn’t seem that great after a time, despite Mercedes Benz’s encouragement to choose “the best or nothing.”

This period after Christmas, when we may be reeling from excesses in eating and drinking, giving and receiving, is a good time to put “stuff” into perspective. Maybe Mathew’s gospel can help.

“Don’t be anxious about your life,” Jesus exhorts people on the side of a Galilean mountain, “what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Jim Gaffigan
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“That’s nice,” we might say, “but that’s not the real world, where we have to be concerned about stuff.”  

The question is the extent to which we must be concerned. That’s Jesus’ point. Skeptics, especially, can’t allow stuff to get in the way of the important things in life, including their search for God.

Jesus’ teaching on the subject parallels what many people are saying about “consumerism,” which Wikipedia defines as “a social and economic order and ideology (that) encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts.”

Consumerism is fueled by advertising coupled with the human urge to “keep up with the Joneses,” an urge I believe is stronger than most of us are willing to admit. And consumerism is the bosom friend of waste.

We easily come to believe we need the latest car, the trendiest clothes and food, the fanciest house and the most prestigious job without giving a thought to the fate of our current car, clothes and food, house and job. We routinely throw away tons of food, believing it’s a limitless commodity.

Pope Francis, in his encyclical letter Laudato Si, is among world leaders to call attention to the problem.

“…A sober look at our world shows that the degree of human intervention, often in the service of business interests and consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and grey, even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to abound limitlessly. We seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable beauty with something which we have created ourselves.”

The Extent of Consumption

The Pope’s warning has been backed up by numerous reports. One study, published in 2004 by the Worldwatch Institute, noted that in Asia, for instance, a shift to an increasingly car-focused culture as has drastically increased local pollution. Worldwatch found that in 2006 the world consumed 28 percent more goods and services than it did in 1996.

Skeptics searching for God should show they’re serious about the search by the way they live, with less consumption, less waste, less worry about material possessions and more generosity, more contentment and a commitment to care for God’s creation.

Along with Pope Francis, I pray that 2016 brings us a greater awareness of the need to care for creation. Here’s a portion of his prayer from Laudato Si:

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.