But I think the experience of getting something stuck in your head can also be an enlightening, even revelatory, experience because it forces you to look at it and ask questions. In the last couple of days the word “superfluous” has been stuck in my head. My concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English tells me that the word comes from two words that have been conjoined; one meaning “more” or “over” (super) and the other meaning “to flow” (fluere). Together the word “superfluous” is used as an adjective and means “more than enough, redundant, needless.” Another source simply has “overflowing bounty.”
Now, I’m not sure why that word got stuck in my head. I probably read or heard it somewhere, but, unlike that word, song or image that gets stuck in your head and won’t let you sleep, this word has helped me think about my Lenten journey.
Now, I’m not sure why that word got stuck in my head. I probably read or heard it somewhere, but, unlike that word, song or image that gets stuck in your head and won’t let you sleep, this word has helped me think about my Lenten journey.
Lent, with its invitation to pause and reflect on life and the spiritual life (and really these can’t be separated for someone who takes both of them seriously), really has a lot to do with the “superfluous.”
Lent is a challenge to live more simply and fully in God’s presence. It asks us to take a serious look at those things that control or direct or lay claim to our life. And let’s admit it, for most of us, it is our work or our studies or our families or our pursuits (whether they be shopping, watching TV, sports or fitness, etc) that really are the primary focus of our lives. And then we are asked to look at whether or not these things lead us into a deeper relationship with God or away from that relationship. And many of us would have to admit that it is a mixed bag. There are some things that help us grow in that relationship and there are some things that pull us away from that intimate relationship with God. And here is where the word “superfluous” comes in for me.
As I look at my life there are many things that are superfluous in the sense of “needless.” They are more than what is needed if I am going to experience and live a fulfilling life. And honestly, they are things that my world, my culture, my society, my insecure and unloved ego tells me are needed if I am to be happy or popular or safe or well-respected, etc. etc. But they really don’t meet the deep need in my life which is for a sense of well-being and wholeness and joy. They promise a lot, but really don’t deliver in any ultimate sense. They can’t because they are “superfluous” to what is needed for the meaning and joy of life. They can often be enjoyed and used, but at the end of the day, they are superfluous in the deeper search for contentment and satisfaction. They are superfluous/needless/useless because only God can supply what I really need at the center of my being.
Lent invites us to realize that underneath all of these distractions and empty promises there is a call to simplicity that understand that what is fundamentally needed for life is the cultivation of a life with God at the center. As Jesus reminds us, we are to seek above everything else the will of God (Matthew 6:33). When we align our will with that Will we see the real place of the things that we have been so feverishly pursuing. They aren’t all evil, but they really are “superfluous” to the meaning of life and to what brings ultimate wholeness and joy.
But there is another “superfluous” or “superfluity” that comes to mind as I reflect on Lent. And this one is the “superfluous-ness” of Grace. We see it in the Jesus’ parable of the loving father who lavishes grace (love, acceptance, the re-establishment of a fractured relationship) on his returning prodigal child as well as on his stay-at-home uptight, callous child (Luke 15:11-32). We see it in the Apostle Paul’s repeated wonder at the extravagant grace of God shown to sinful, world-weary men and women in the God News that is the Gospel. Yes, God’s grace is “superfluous” in that it is “more than enough” and an “overflowing bounty.”
It is this “superfluous” grace that calls to us in Lent and reminds us that our deepest longings and genuine needs are only found in a relationship with God. Lent challenges us to remember, or perhaps discover for the first time, that we are loved by God and that that love is a redeeming love. To surrender to that God is, in the words of Thomas Merton, to “quit keeping score altogether and surrender yourself with all your sinfulness to God who sees neither the score nor the scorekeeper but only his child redeemed in Christ.” To rediscover that love through pausing for Lent to look honestly at our life is grace, grace that is “overflowing bounty.” It is a reminder that dependence on the God of love and mercy revealed in Jesus is the most important lesson that we can learn if we are to really experience Life in all its fullness.
But it isn’t always an easy lesson because there is so much in our lives that struggles against that truth. Joan Chittister has written, “Dependence on God may be what is lacking in a society where consumerism and accumulation have become the root diseases of a world in which everything is not enough and nothing satisfies.” But here again we have Grace. If we will turn and make the effort to reconnect with God, we will find that God is already there with outstretched arms to bring us back into relationship. That is Superfluous Grace – an overflowing bounty.
