True Devotion to God, Not Money

 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    When I think about those who are greedy for money, the first two images that come to mind are Disney characters: Scrooge McDuck and the Disney version of Prince John from Robin Hood.  I can see in my mind’s eye cartoons with Scrooge diving into his supply of gold coins in his vault or Prince John wrapping a bag of gold around his arm while he sucks his thumb and sleeps.  I think this is a bit ironic, as I feel like you now have to take a second mortgage out on your house if you wish to visit Disney World with you kids.  
    Clearly, if our readings are saying anything today, they’re saying don’t make money a god.  Ecclesiastes reminds us that whatever we work for we have to leave behind, and this is a vanity.  The Gospel talks about making sure we’re not greedy, like the parable of the man who builds bigger places to store all his wealth, only to lose it by his own surprise death.  And even the epistle from St. Paul, which does not always connect to the first reading and Gospel, tells us to set our minds on the things above, heavenly things, rather than those of earth.  
    And so, one could easily think that God says not to worry about money.  And in one sense, that would be right.  But, all of us have basic needs we need to care for, like food, drink, clothing, housing, and healthcare, and all of those (more or less) require money.  And it’s one think if you decide to ignore your own needs, but if you are married and have children, your family may depend on you to earn income so that they also have food, drink, clothing, housing, and healthcare.  So it seems like you have to worry about money.  But the readings tell us not to.  So do we just ignore these readings because they’re difficult?  Or do we stop work and run off to a monastery or convent (the word nunnery could also be used) and never worry about money again?

St. Francis de Sales

    Money does easily tend towards dominating our thoughts and affections, but it is not in itself bad.  Those who live in the world need to exercise wisdom in how they earn and spend money, and this is actually part of how they live their vocation to be saints.  St. Francis de Sales helps us understand this in his great work, Introduction to the Devout Life:
 

When God the Creator made all things, he commanded the plants to bring forth fruit each according to its own kind; he has likewise commanded Christians, who are the living plants of his Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each one in accord with his character, his station and his calling….
Tell me, please, my Philothea, whether it is proper for a bishop to want to lead a solitary life like a Carthusian; or for married people to be no more concerned than a Capuchin about increasing their income; or for a working man to spend his whole day in church like a religious.… Is not this sort of devotion ridiculous, unorganised and intolerable? Yet this absurd error occurs very frequently, but in no way does true devotion, my Philothea, destroy anything at all. On the contrary, it perfects and fulfills all things. In fact if it ever works against, or is inimical to, anyone’s legitimate station and calling, then it is very definitely false devotion.

Holiness comes according to our vocation and our avocation, and avoiding the duties and responsibilities of our own vocation so that we try to be like those living in another vocation is, as St. Francis de Sales says, “false devotion.”
    So, then, what does that mean for you and me?  How do I guard against greed but also work enough to support my family?  Am I allowed to better my family’s life and circumstances, or should I only have the basics?
    Those are each questions that only you can answer in the particular, but with certain principles the Church has to guide you.  First of all, do you own your money or does your money own you?  If you’re not sure, how much time do you spend thinking about money and possessions?  Sometimes I see my spending habits and realize that I need to pull back so that my expenses don’t exceed my income.  That’s virtuous.  But sometimes I might think that if I just had a million dollars I could be truly happy.  That’s greed and idolatry.  
    Can one take nice vacations to tropical places?  Sure, as long as you are meeting the basic requirements of taking care of your family and giving back to God some of what He has given to you.  While we don’t necessarily use the 10% rule (and, truth be told, Catholics on average give less than 1% of their income to the Church), how much is spent on unnecessary niceties, and how much is spent on charity, including the Church, the poor, other charitable organizations, etc.?  If we’re stingy with how much we give the Church, but liberal with what we spend on ourselves or our own creature comforts, then maybe we do need to re-prioritize.  
    A great way to keep money in perspective is to remember that we cannot take it with us.  As the author of Ecclesiastes, by tradition King Solomon, reminded us, we can work as hard as we want for all the money in the world, but we can’t take our money with us.  When we see it as a means of helping us be saints, then we are probably keeping it in the right perspective.  May no one look at us and think of Scrooge McDuck or Prince John, but may they recognize our stewardship of what God has allowed us to enjoy, no matter how much or how little.

Distractions

 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    To be honest, on a weekly basis or so, my dishwasher is full of clean dishes, having just been washed.  I know that I should put them in their proper cupboards and drawers, but it’s not something I really want to do.  So I find some distraction–maybe the reruns of “Law and Order” that I’ve seen a million times before; maybe checking on my Clash of Clans game on the phone, or scrolling through Facebook; or a particularly ironic choice, eating something, which often involves pulling one dish out to use, while leaving the others still sitting in the dishwasher.
    It’s funny the amount of energy we spend on distractions and not attending to what is important.  I say funny because it takes me all of about 5 minutes to empty the dishwasher.  It’s not hard work, it’s not even that time-consuming.  But the distractions seem more enjoyable, or less work, or just something else other than what we should be doing.
    When it comes to our faith life, we can go after distractions, rather than attending to Jesus, the one who is truly necessary.  We find all sorts of other distractions so that we don’t have to go deeper in our relationship with God.  That’s not to say that we are all called to be monks or nuns, praying different prayers at every moment when we’re not working, cooking, or cleaning.  But how often do we find ways to keep from concentrating on our faith life, on our relationship with God, because we put up distractions as obstacles to dealing with deeper issues?
    We see that even in the Gospel today.  Someone is listening to Jesus, but decides that now is the good time to get Jesus to arbitrate an inheritance issue.  Now, before being too rough on the person, rabbis often intervened to help people understand what was just and the right course of action according to the law of Moses and rabbinical interpretations.  But Jesus doesn’t get bogged down in that.  He calls out the distraction, and asserts that there are more important things to be focused on than who gets the money from the parents’ estate.
    Money can sometimes be a distraction to our relationship with God.  We get so caught up in money issues that we forget to focus on God.  This distraction is particularly tough, because money allows one to fulfill one’s responsibilities to self or to family.  So yes, by all means find a job that helps pay the bills.  But don’t let the quest for money tear you away from God, as it so often does.  Money frequently becomes a god, where if we just had a little more, then we would be fine.  But that little more never seems to be enough, and the bar always seems to move farther and farther away when it comes to how much money we need.  One of the beautiful things about the Catholic Church is that our Church is for rich and poor alike.  We are all called to be fed by the Word of God and the Eucharist, and to share those graces with those we meet, whether we have a lot or a little.  Jesus wants us to make God our priority, in times of plenty and in times of need, even as we share our resources to care for the members of this parish and the wider community.
    I would say that politics has become another distraction to our relationship with God.  In many ways we, as Americans, have made politics our new religion.  We spend hours, not in front of a gold box that holds the Incarnate Word of God, but in front of a thin, black box that shows political party events.  We tire of a ten-minute homily on strengthening our faith, but we’ll spend hours listening to this or that politician pontificate on why the opponent is wrong on whatever the new issue is.  We put up with those who claim to be Catholic but who say things or do things which are contrary to the faith, but if a Democratic senator doesn’t support the Green New Deal, or if a Republican senator votes to approve a controversial appointee, we go crazy and seek to ostracize them from the party and from our life.  We belittle and demonize them and treat them worse that the Pharisees treated sinners and tax collectors.  Again, this is not to say that we shouldn’t participate in politics (you should participate in the primary election this Tuesday, and vote with a conscience informed by your Catholic faith), but what priority do we give to Uncle Sam versus God our Father?
    And we focus on these things and more so that we don’t have to focus on how we’re doing with God.  We have a sense that we’re not as strong in our faith or as close to God as we want to be, but when it comes to cutting out the distractions, we find that we prefer distractions to our religion.  The distractions are, as our first reading says, vanities.  Money will come and go, as will politicians.  But Jesus remains for ever.  Whatever distractions we prefer, they don’t save us, and they don’t continue after death.  And we never know how much time we have before God will call us to account for how we used our time, how much we spent on Him or how much we spent on distractions.  
    Jesus invites us today to be rich in the things that matter to God.  Don’t let distractions keep you from eternal life and the joy that comes from the Gospel!

"You fool"

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

There are many endearing names that we would probably like to hear from God: my beloved; my son or my daughter; my child; my good and faithful servant.  Today we hear a not-so-endearing name that God calls the man in the parable: “You fool.”  

Those are not the words we want to hear from God.  So, why does the man in the parable hear those words?  Was it because the man was a successful farmer?  Was it because he was trying to increase his buildings?  Does God hate people with lots of stuff?

If we look through salvation history, we see people who are successful, who build great buildings, who have lots of stuff, that God loves.  Just a couple will suffice as examples: Abraham was a very successful man and had lots of possessions; King Solomon built a beautiful temple to God.  God didn’t have problems with them for that.  So why was God so peeved in the parable that Jesus told?

The man in the parable is concerned only with one thing: putting his trust in his things and his success.  He has made his possessions and his success his god, worshipping it by applying all his energy to it.  He must not have read Ecclesiastes, our first reading, where the author (by tradition King Solomon), inspired by God, reminds the people that all that we work for in life is left to others, and we should not make it the aim of our entire life.

Sometimes as Catholics and Christians we can have an uneasy approach to money.  Maybe we think that God and the Church says that having money is bad, that being successful is bad.  That’s not what God and the Church says at all.  How many church buildings have been built by the generosity of the People of God?  How many ministries are funded by the donations of people who have done very well for themselves in business?  And Jesus and His Apostles had a money bag, and would often rely on the generosity of their followers, like Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

There is nothing inherently wrong with being rich and/or successful in a worldly point of view.  It is not necessarily a sin to have lots of money or nice things.  But, we have to ask ourselves if our money, our success, or our possessions have become a god to us.  What is our approach to our things?  

It is easy to have things become gods to us.  We work to get them, we put in a lot of energy around them.  Someone has a nice house in a nice neighborhood, so we have to move there and build a nice house, too.  There’s a new iPhone coming out, and even though our phone works fine, and we just got a new one, we need to have the latest gadget in technology.  Or we do all the work in the world to reach that high point of our career, and everything else goes to the back burner.  If we live that way, then God may well say to us, “You fool!”

Because what will happen after you die to all that money that you spent so long attaining?  You don’t get to take it with you.  It will go to someone else: your family, friends, the government.  What will happen that super nice house that you spent all your energy in building and improving?  It will be sold to someone else.  What will happen to your job into which you worked so hard to be promoted?  Someone else will get it, and may even do a better job than you.  When we spend all our time and energy on those passing things, we neglect the things that are eternal, and will survive us after we die: love, faith, in general we might say our soul.

What does last is the love that we give to God and that we give to others.  Sometimes that love is expressed through financial donations, but it is more often expressed in time and energy.  When we spend our time and energy on loving God and others, we work on a success that continues with us in the next life.  When we work on our relationship with God, on forgiving others, and spending time with friends and family, we are not creating false gods, but focusing on what the true God has asked us to do which will make us truly happy not only in this life, but especially in the next.  

Money, success, worldly possessions are not bad in themselves.  But they can often take on a life of their own, and become gods to us.  If we ever wonder if a possession has become a god, then think of what you would do if you had to give it up today.  We may be sad, no matter what, but would we think about how much time we wasted to get that thing now that it’s gone?  If we ever think that we have wasted time when something is taken away from us, then we are probably right; we probably have wasted time on things which are not essential.  Today God, the true God, invites us to take stock of how we spend our time and energy.  Are they on passing things?  Or do we spend our time and energy on that which will remain with us as we approach the judgment seat of God?

Our Modern Security Blanket

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            One of my mom’s favorite comic strips has been “Peanuts.”  I’m not sure how often she actually reads the comic strips, but she always loves the television specials that come on: “The Great Pumpkin,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and so forth.  One of the unforgettable characters of the Peanuts is Linus, the little guy who carries around his security blanket everywhere he goes.  And while I have seen him swat Snoopy away from time to time, it really doesn’t live up to the security part of the name.  It’s more just there for Linus to feel good and safe.

            Now, while most of us would say that a security blanket does not, in fact, make us secure, we seem to have a different idea about money.  We all seem to think that if I just save enough, or I just make enough at my job, then I will be safe and will have nothing to worry about.

            Our current economic state should have divested people in that false belief, especially with how many people have lost their jobs, or have had to relocate in order to make it.  But we shouldn’t need a recession to remind us that our security is not in green backs, stocks, or 401ks, but in the Lord.  All we had to do was turn to the twelfth chapter of Luke, which is where today’s Gospel can be found.

            If we would have looked there, we would have seen, not that the Lord condemns having money, but that he condemns thinking that our safety and security lie in our possessions.  More than just losing money, the rich man, who has plenty of money and is not in danger of losing any of his possessions, forfeits his greatest possession, his soul, because he did not trust in the Lord.  Can you imagine going to the pearly gates, and the Lord saying to you, “You fool!”?  Yet, because the rich man trusted in his possessions, but was poor in what mattered to God, the rich man merited to hear those harsh words.

            Again, the Lord is not condemning having money or possessions in themselves.  But He warns against greed, and not treasuring what is important to God.  And why is greed so bad?  Shouldn’t we want to get ahead, make a good profit, and live comfortable lives?  The problem with greed is that money seems to take on a life of its own, and always seeks to master us, rather than being mastered by us.  As soon as we get a little money, then the cash almost seems to whisper to us, “You need more!  You need to save up more of me so that if you lose your job I will be there to support you, comfort you, and get you through the tough times.”  What the cash in essence is truly saying is, “I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of recession.  Therefore, you shall love your cash and guard it with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  It makes of itself an idol.  Which is why St. Paul tells us in the second reading to put to death the parts of us that are earthly, that is, that are in opposition to God: “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.”  Money so often becomes a god to us, at whose altar we are sometimes all too ready to worship. 

We put all sorts of things behind how much money we can make, and we find good reasons for doing it: it’s for the kids; it’s for the retirement fund; it’s for the Church.  We rationalize trying to get more and more money so that we can have all the fancy toys, the big houses, the fastest cars, and the finest meals.  And as if it’s not bad enough that we do it ourselves, we pass the message on to our kids that money is the most important thing.  Sure, we would never say that directly.  But when we say that choosing a college is important because if you get into the right college for the right line of work, you can get a good job, we are often insinuating that getting a good job means making good money.  I can’t tell you how many people went to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and got a degree in business, not because they had any interest in it, or felt that God was calling them to be a good, holy businessman or woman, but because they were convinced that’s where the money was. 

Of course, the security that money gives us is about as protective as Linus’ blanket.  As our first reading stated, “Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property.”  In other words, you can’t take it with you.  When you’re dead, it doesn’t really matter how fancy your casket is, or how big of a monument you have at the cemetery.  What matters then is if you were rich in the things of God.

Again, I’m not saying, and the Church does not say, that money and capital are bad.  In many ways there are very good means to an end.  Money helps us to provide for our families.  It is the just compensation for the effort we put forth, with our hands or with our minds, that benefits society.  It helps the poor by providing basic needs, and can build beautiful churches for the proper worship of the True and Living God.  As long as money is only a means to serving God according to our vocation in life, then it remains simply a thing.  But, be on guard, lest the money we save up starts to take control of us, and starts to rule us, and become a god to us, and we hear from the Lord, “You fool!”  If, however, we control our money, use it to provide for our families, and are generous with it to feed the poor, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty, and aid us in the worship of God, then, instead of hearing you fool, we can hope to hear, “‘Come, my good and faithful servant.  Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities.  Come, share your master’s joy.’”