Although it is a matter of common sense that we live in the world, we are not normally comfortable in the world. The world is often unsatisfactory and can even become unbearable. If we dedicate ourselves to making the world a better place, we will likely be overcome by the conviction that our efforts fail to bring the world up to our standards, with the result that we become discouraged and give up trying to do anything. We might decide that only something other than the world will satisfy us. But if we put all our energy into pursuing some other world than the one we live in while trying to leave our world behind us, we will likely end up with nothing but evaporating dreams.

Much Christian piety expresses sentiments along the lines of: If we have Jesus, then we have no need of any worldly things. Since the world is painful, let us forget it and just enjoy God and Eternity. Let us have nothing to do with those bad guys who are running the planet and leading it into ruin. Forget blueberries and blueberry pies! Let us not enjoy anything in life lest we become contaminated by the world!

As a middle ground, we often cite the art of being in the world but not of it as the fundamental tension of living the Christian life. This phrase gives us the right sense of direction for pursuing this problem, but it can give rise to misunderstandings. Although it suggests, rightly, that we need some detachment from our concerns in the world, it does not mean that we should be oblivious of the world around us. Neither does it mean that there is nothing good in the so-called secular world. Rather, Christians need to examine values that have developed outside the church in order to discern when they touch on the goodness Jesus revealed in his life. Being in the church does not automatically save us from the opportunistic, insensitive, and even vicious behavior which hinder the church's development of values which Jesus himself embodied.

Even if we wanted to, could we really have Jesus without also having worldly things along with him? If our piety involved relating to a god who had never entered the human condition, then it would follow that we can best be united with this god by stripping ourselves of all concern for the world. But when it is a matter of relating to God who has taken on humanity, then we should not expect our relationship with this God to remove us from either the joy or the pain of human life in the world.

If we take Jesus as the model for being in the world but not of it, we can see right away that he was very much involved in the world, but involved in such a way as to change the world beyond recognition. He was uniquely free from the expectations of and pressures from other people which play on the sense of opportunism for the rest of us. Jesus showed his appreciation of the food and drink offered by a respectable rich man such Simon the Leper as well as that offered by tax collectors and sinners such as Zacchaeus. Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well when it was not expected that a Jewish man would speak to a Samaritan, let alone a strange woman. Jesus died on the cross when prudence suggested he save his skin one more time. But his death in this world caused him to rise far above it when he was raised from the dead. Jesus' Resurrection has redefined both death and life so as to offer us a new way of living with these mysteries

So not being of the world has little to do with not being in the world, but it has a lot to do with the attitude we bring to the world. In the Bible, the word "world" itself has two contrary connotations: the world as that which opposes God, and the world as the creation and object of God's love. In order to keep these two connotations straight, we need to remember that worldliness is not in the world but in ourselves. Too often we blame "the world" for tempting us to turn away from God as if the world were constructed as an obstacle course for us. In fact insofar as we learn to see the world as God's world, creation becomes more and transparent to God's reality. Not only do such things as the beauty of nature, the power of music or the actions of a selfless person reveal God, but the most ordinary things in daily life deepen our sense of God as well.

We begin to understand the difference between being in the world and being of the world if we search through the Gospels for the inner attitudes which make our involvement in the world destructive and those which give our involvement a positive value. There is not the space to make an exhaustive list here, but a few examples can give us a start in exploring this matter.

Perhaps, in Christian moralizing, there is an overemphasis on clinging overmuch to our personal possessions, but the parable of the man who pulled down his barns so as to build even bigger barns reminds us that this hazard may not be neglected. If we sell our souls for the sake of possessions, we may find that we have nothing when God asks us for our souls. On the other hand, Zacchaeus showed the opposite trait when he promised Jesus that he would give half his possessions to charity and pay back four times over those he had defrauded

The attitude of forgiveness is an important fundamental attitude. It is lack of forgiveness which ties us to the world without God's love for the world. The older son in the parable of the Prodigal Son is an example of the worldly person who cares not for his father's love for the younger brother but cares about whether or not his father has given him a kid for celebrating with his friends.

Love of enemies is another unworldly attitude. Loving an enemy can be dangerous. Nobody learned that better than Jesus when he was on the cross. But it is precisely this love for enemies which makes deep involvement in the world so transcendent of it.

One particularly destructive way of being of the world worth looking at in some detail is the lust for power. When the disciples argued about who is the greatest, Jesus placed a small child in front of them and told them to be like that child. The point is not that we should be like little children because they are always sweet and adorable. Rather, we should be like children because they have no power in the world. That is how much power a follower of Jesus should want. Great harm is done by those addicted to the exercise of power, whether it is a dictator molding a whole country to his image, a parish priest who prefers exercising control in the congregation to offering pastoral care, or parents who try to make their children into copies of themselves. An even darker example is the matter of sexual assault where some people get so caught up in a sexual desire, that they lose the ability to conceive of the desired person not wanting the sexual relationship.

However, Christianity cannot be reduced to a naive protest against any use of power at all. Power is not something we can just throw out of this world so that there is no more of it lying around for anybody to pick up. In any case, society cannot function without a structure of authority. Power exists and is a part of our lives whether we like it or not. We have to face the fact that we will affect other people in our lives no matter what we do or don't do. And that is power. Since we will have some influence on the other people in our lives, we must be concerned with what that influence will be. Are we encouraging other people to grow in virtue, or are we reinforcing their own self-centeredness for our own purposes?

The way to unworldly use of power and authority is shown by the way Jesus used them. He showed his power in the working of miracles, and exercised his authority in his pronouncements, most particularly in claiming to forgive sins. Yet Jesus did not claim to have either power or authority on his own account. He did not come to do his own will but the will of Him who sent him. Even Jesus, the Son of God, willingly derives his power from his Father rather than presume to act on his own initiative. However, far from being possessive of His power, the Father gives all power and authority to the Son. If we are to follow Jesus' example, then we, also, should be more concerned that our authority coming from God and not from our own desires for authority and power on our own terms.

Moreover, the power and authority Jesus exercised never violated anyone's fundamental freedom to believe or not believe, or the freedom to follow or not to follow him. If Jesus could cast out demons, then surely he could have cast out all rejection of him, but he did not. These are freedoms which Christ still gives to all of us. Is this not the freedom the Church as the Body of Christ should offer her members and the world?

There is a terrific risk in renouncing the desire to remake other people according to our desires. We do not feel secure when we relinquish our attempts to control other people. Not only that, but if we do relinquish control, we are sure to suffer all the more from the shortcomings of others. How often we wish we could find the magic words that will turn other people into what we want them to be! When we live with the otherness of others, there is no choice but to give others space to find themselves in God, just as we assume this right for ourselves.

Our vulnerability before others is nothing like our vulnerability before ourselves when we face the fundamental task of repenting and turning our lives over to Christ. Becoming good and holy is what we should all strive to do, but human effort is not enough to accomplish this goal. We find more resistance to God within ourselves than we can overcome by our own willpower. We need the grace of God to turn us around and keep us turned to God. The spiritual journey, then, involves giving up the quest for gaining power over ourselves and giving ourselves over to God. Only if we hand ourselves totally over to God will our own efforts at self-discipline bear fruit. When we become absorbed in our own efforts, we find ourselves trying harder to little or no effect. This beating the air with our own efforts is, again, the way of the world, and not the way of Christ.

At the bottom of our turning away from "worldliness" is an emptying of self. In order to appreciate the beauty of creation, we must empty ourselves of the need to possess all or to use all. If we don't appreciate trees through our emptying of self, we will want to own them all and cut all of them down in order to sell them to the highest bidder. In order to appreciate other people, we must empty ourselves of our tendency to possess and use them for our own agendas in life. We must also empty ourselves of the illusion that we can pull ourselves out of our "worldliness" by our own bootstraps. God does not give us bootstraps, God gives us grace.

These acts of self-emptying culminate in the way of the cross. Seeing the cross as the shape of our deepest sufferings in life does not make suffering less painful. The pain we suffer still hurts. But the more self we put into the hands of God, the less self there is to be preoccupied with the suffering. With the self put in God's hands, the self gains new life, the life of God. When we are trampled deep into the earth, we are no longer of this world. The emptying of self begins to purify our hearts so that we may see God.

The actions we perform in the world can do much to build within us an unworldly attitude. But the most fundamental way to be in the world without being of it is to participate in worship. Not only does worship give us the opportunity to align our thought and will with God, but it gives us the chance to let go of our tasks in life and the pleasures we enjoy. We need the time set apart for God as a protection against the temptation to become wholly engrossed in the world remade after our own desires. We need to spend time with God in order to gain a vision of how God wants the world to be. Most important, our time of worship should dynamically fill us with the love and energy of Christ Himself for the sake of God's world.

When we spend generous amounts of time in prayer regularly, then the work of prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit becomes more and more an abiding presence within us while we concentrate on the work put into our hands. For all Christians, then, there is a needed rhythm of prayer and action, although that rhythm will differ for Christians following different vocations. Contemplative monks and nuns need to take time to care for visitors and social activists need to take a retreat from time to time.

The Christian who is in the world and not of it, will be glad to appreciate the blueberries that God grew and also the blueberry pie that another person has made. We won't, however, try to devour all the pies in the world, or make blueberry pies just to make other people do what we want. Far from turning away from the created world, our turning to God will bring us face to face with God's only begotten son who walked this earth. With Christ, we will love the world with his love, and not ours. With Christ, we can make the whole world most unworldly.