c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) You know things are getting bad when the AARP Bulletin publishes stories about over-50, formerly upscale, now homeless folks sleeping in their cars in Santa Barbara, Calif.

No kidding.

The New Beginnings Counseling Center runs a city-funded safe parking project in that idyllic city by the sea. It’s where once-middle-class-or-better people _ many still with SUVs and gym memberships _ sleep in their cars in church parking lots and other safe havens while trying to get it together again.

The world’s economy has taken a beating over the last several months. Depression-era images of bankers on breadlines and half-remembered stories of parents and grandparents subsisting on rice and tomato sauce are starting to trouble our sleep. They say it will get worse before it gets better. Or not, depending on whom you trust.

Not long ago, Pope Benedict XVI told a giant crowd in Paris that an unbridled “pagan” passion for power, possessions and money was a modern-day plague. His words echo the message of spiritual writers across every tradition in every century: We must cling to what’s real, and decline everything else.

They say the key to an internal gyroscope that will maintain emotional equilibrium is recognizing that nothing material lasts forever, and nothing material really affects who we are.

Sound crazy? I don’t think so.

Consider it this way. You have the “red car.” It is a terrific car. You like it, your friends like it. Heads turn when you drive by.

But what are they looking at? Just a hunk of metal destined for the junk pile. The real question: What do they see when they look at you?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with having the red car. But a person who self-defines with material things is a prisoner of desire and poorer than the one who has nothing.

And there are plenty of people in the world who truly have nothing.

Well, they have nothing but their spirits, their souls, their life forces, or however they understand their connection to the Real _ that is, to God.

America and the world face hard times, and things might indeed get worse. Now is as good a time as any to take stock of what matters. Chances are the list starts with family, and continues in no particular order with the priceless gifts of friends and freedom, health and memories. The luckiest among us list trust in God.

And trust in God is not some pious sop to throw on dwindling stock portfolios and draining bank accounts. Trust in God implies trust in the Real, in the One who made us and prepared us for this or any other challenge in our short time on the planet.

In many respects, all religions teach this principle, using different spiritual “languages” if you will. Christians recall they’ve been told to place their faith in God, not “mammon.” Buddhists remember nothing is permanent. Jews know the Book of Proverbs says “Wisdom is better than rubies.” Hindus ponder the beginning of the Isha Upanishad: “By renouncing the world, enjoy it.”

We are not called to starve or suffer, but neither are we called to be enslaved to money and what seems to be the prestige that goes along with it. Maybe these craters in the road will help to focus our attention on what really matters, and help us give up any craving for what does not.

(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of several books in Catholic Studies.)

KRE/LF END ZAGANO

A photo of Phyllis Zagano is available via https://religionnews.com.