For most Christians, it would seem like the choice between God and money is an easy one. The quick response would be God. However, our actions most times do not reflect this Christian choice. When money rather than God is the driving force of our lives, we are choosing money over God. In the gospel this week, Jesus says you cannot serve both God and mammon (riches, or material wealth.) Christians must always choose God over material things because all material things come from God and they belong to him. While God lasts forever, material wealth does not.
The choice for God over wealth brings about a more just society. The social problems we face in the world are not as a result of lack of abundant resources, they result from greed. God has blessed this world with abundant resources but a majority of the stewards of these resources are selfish with them. St. Augustine teaches us that the extras we have do not belong to us but we hold in custody for the poor. If we refuse to share them with the poor, we are stealing from them. If we choose God over wealth, we will recognize that it is wrong to take salaries and bonuses of thousands and millions of dollars while our employees do not have a living wage. As Christians, we do not strive to be wealthy at all cost because wealth is not the primary purpose of our lives. The purpose of our lives is to know God, to love him, to serve him and to be happy with him in this world and in the next. Every other thing is a footnote. Thus, we cannot dehumanize others in order to gain wealth.
Choosing wealth over God is a cardinal sin. It is an affirmation of a lack of trust in God. When we trust God, we can be assured that he would provide our material needs. The miracles of both the Old Testament and the New Testament (manner in the desert, the widow of Zeraphath, the feeding of the five thousand, etc.) bear witness to God’s faithfulness to his promise.
-Fr. Bekeh Utietiang
Reflection Questions:
How much does a ticket to heaven cost? What is the cost of salvation stocks? What is the monetary exchange rate in heaven? Why money and not God? Can we choose both?
Proverbs 22:7 tells us "The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender". I have a testament to this. I am an engineer and worked hard to achieve success in my career. However, I defined success as how many big boy toys I had like a Harley Davidson. I felt bad because after I paid all my monthly bills, I barely had any money to give and help others. I felt like a rat in a wheel because I had to go to work just to keep up with life. With the economy slowing, we did not have much savings and I could have easily lost my job. We were living on the edge and my wife and I had to do something different. We turned our life over to the Lord and, except for a 10 year mortgage, we recently shed all our payments and became debt free. We have not had a credit card for over 18 months and we feel free from the chains of modern society. In order to pay it forward, I am coordinating a Financial Peace University course at St. John University Parish in March 2011. If you feel like a rat in a wheel and want to gain control and be more generous, I encourage you to attend the preview class!
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