"To praise God! Do we know what it means to praise? To adore? To give glory? Praise is cheap today. Everything is praised. Soap, beer, toothpaste, clothing, mouthwash, movie stars, all the latest gadgets which are supposed to make life more comfortable—everything is constantly being "praised" with the official hollow enthusiasm of a radio announcer. It turns out in the end that nothing is praised. Praise has become empty. Nobody really wants to use it. Are there any superlatives left for God?"
I am talking to my husband about Thomas Merton and praise and reflecting on how much praise he (my husband) was required to accumulate in order to get tenure and keep his job as a university professor. The whole place runs on praise and merit and external validation. It's a Buddhist's nightmare (and not such an easy place to be a Christian either). My husband reminds me of the Rilke sonnet that begins, "Praising is what matters!"
I think about movie reviews and book jacket blurbs and desserts that are "to die for" and singers whose voices are "transcendent, " and I start to wonder if Rilke is right, if praising is what matters, and then I worry that maybe there is a finite amount of praise alloted to each of us, or all of us, and that maybe we are squandering it on all the wrong things. Really, are there any superlatives left for God? Can we take back "awesome" for starters?
1 comment:
Yes indeed, sister! On the list with "awesome," can we put "incredible"?
I remember students who told me solemnly that Beatrix Potter was "awesome." Heaven help us.
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