Coming out of culinary school, I have found that our culture has consistently sacrificed quality for quantity and convenience. At this point, more dishes that may have been something wonderful at some point have been bastardized into vulgar caricatures of their true selves. This transition was slow and easy – in fact, few seem to notice that anything is amiss. But to those who have taken the time to seek out something better, there exists a gaping and ever-present rift between what we are given and what we crave. There is no way to satisfy that craving with the malnourishing and cheaply obtained substitutes.
This degradation of quality, and our willingness to accept simple and easy over satisfying and fulfilling, is just a small part of a societal trend, which has been observed all too clearly by those who have a keen appreciation for anything, and not just food. We have seen popular art, popular food, and popular music all degrade. This is not to say that nothing of value remains, but this is a valid assessment of the cultural climate at large.
All of this degradation is to me a type of what has happened and is continuing to happen to the Church. We no longer love the truth enough to devote ourselves to it. We want our Church in small, inoffensively flavored sermons that only serve to deaden our spiritual palates. At some point in our sanctification, we must develop a taste for the finer spiritual things, or as Paul puts it:
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.
- 1st Corinthians 3:1, ESV
This is speaking to the same basic principle behind our cultural trends in food, music, and the arts. We all want the easy to digest, familiar spiritual nourishment we have always had, but this marks us as infants, and as those whose growth has been stunted by complacency. Along this same vein, C.S. Lewis once said:
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Like the degradation of our tastes in fine music, art, and food, it is unfortunate that we have not grown more in our desire for Christ, but instead have continued being the “half-hearted creatures” that Lewis spoke of. Culture must and will be conformed to the image of Christ, but how can we honestly say that we serve Christ in this regard when we have abandoned spiritual meat and wine for ethereal comfort food?
Thoughts? Leave a comment or send us an e-mail at thedemoscritic@gmail.com.
Author: Matt Murdock
