Fr. Louis Brioni, SX
EIGHT SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
If you live in Sierra Leone or come to our Country someday, never ask our children (and, at times, adults too), never ask them a “double question”, something like “Do you want this or that?”, for surely you will get a clear and loud “yes” that leaves you totally confused. “What does this child really want then?” you may ask. You will certainly not know it, unless you ask one question at the time, “Do you want this?” If the child’s answer is then yes, you will somehow understand that he/she does not want “that”.
All this to help us clarify, “small-small”, as they say here, the meaning of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of this Sunday, “You cannot be the slave both of God and money.” For you can never say “yes” to both God and money. It is totally an impossible fusion, like putting water and fire together. You need to choose, either one or the other!
A Christian that says “yes” to both God and money is evidently, like our child, both con-fused and con-fusing. If he/she accepts to serve both God and money, his/her heart is torn in the middle and does not function for any life, least of all for the life of faith and love, for the life of Christ.
With our words, we all admit that God is one and supreme. The prayers we recite, from the Our Father to the Creed, are all one affirmation after another that God comes first in our life and we cannot live without His loving presence. Yes, in words, privately and, above all, publicly, God is God!
However, we can humbly and sincerely recognize that, more often than not, money (and the power money can give) takes priority in our mind and heart. For in many decisions of ours money seems to be the first and only criterion we use, with little or no reference to God or to His poor. We need, we want to make money at all costs, at the cost of putting our God in a corner, of losing relatives and friends, of closing our eyes to the needs of society. If we are fully truthful, we can easily catch ourselves unawares of the many times money conditions our daily decisions and life-style, our deepest feelings. Don’t we very often value and envy people basically for the money they have or can make?
All this does not qualify us as faithful and happy followers of Christ, for whom nothing is more important than the love of God and the peace with one another. Yes, in open and subtle way, money can kill God in our heart and become our practical god … supremely wanted and solely worshiped!
Let’s go back then to the power of Jesus’ statement for a life without compromise neither with money nor with God. Choosing God wholeheartedly, perseveringly, and joyfully will greatly help us to cast away the (absolute) power of money on us. “The truth will make you free” Jesus told his disciples. Yes, God and only God can make us joyfully free to be, to live, and to do. Can we not all remember those moments of grace when God was clearly our first choice, and we were so happy, so eternal?
Allow me to pass on to you one practical suggestion, though a bit difficult because we like to cover our money with so much secrecy. Let’s us try during this coming week, between Christian friends or in small groups, to share in depth how we usually deal with money, how we can use the power of money in a Christian way, how we should prioritize God in everything we are and do, how we would need to value not so much the money we have but the dignity we are, children of God, now and forever.
Let’s try, beginning from me. We may even succeed and become better “slaves” of the only One that can definitely satisfy the best desires of our heart.
EIGHT SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
If you live in Sierra Leone or come to our Country someday, never ask our children (and, at times, adults too), never ask them a “double question”, something like “Do you want this or that?”, for surely you will get a clear and loud “yes” that leaves you totally confused. “What does this child really want then?” you may ask. You will certainly not know it, unless you ask one question at the time, “Do you want this?” If the child’s answer is then yes, you will somehow understand that he/she does not want “that”.
All this to help us clarify, “small-small”, as they say here, the meaning of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of this Sunday, “You cannot be the slave both of God and money.” For you can never say “yes” to both God and money. It is totally an impossible fusion, like putting water and fire together. You need to choose, either one or the other!
A Christian that says “yes” to both God and money is evidently, like our child, both con-fused and con-fusing. If he/she accepts to serve both God and money, his/her heart is torn in the middle and does not function for any life, least of all for the life of faith and love, for the life of Christ.
With our words, we all admit that God is one and supreme. The prayers we recite, from the Our Father to the Creed, are all one affirmation after another that God comes first in our life and we cannot live without His loving presence. Yes, in words, privately and, above all, publicly, God is God!
However, we can humbly and sincerely recognize that, more often than not, money (and the power money can give) takes priority in our mind and heart. For in many decisions of ours money seems to be the first and only criterion we use, with little or no reference to God or to His poor. We need, we want to make money at all costs, at the cost of putting our God in a corner, of losing relatives and friends, of closing our eyes to the needs of society. If we are fully truthful, we can easily catch ourselves unawares of the many times money conditions our daily decisions and life-style, our deepest feelings. Don’t we very often value and envy people basically for the money they have or can make?
All this does not qualify us as faithful and happy followers of Christ, for whom nothing is more important than the love of God and the peace with one another. Yes, in open and subtle way, money can kill God in our heart and become our practical god … supremely wanted and solely worshiped!
Let’s go back then to the power of Jesus’ statement for a life without compromise neither with money nor with God. Choosing God wholeheartedly, perseveringly, and joyfully will greatly help us to cast away the (absolute) power of money on us. “The truth will make you free” Jesus told his disciples. Yes, God and only God can make us joyfully free to be, to live, and to do. Can we not all remember those moments of grace when God was clearly our first choice, and we were so happy, so eternal?
Allow me to pass on to you one practical suggestion, though a bit difficult because we like to cover our money with so much secrecy. Let’s us try during this coming week, between Christian friends or in small groups, to share in depth how we usually deal with money, how we can use the power of money in a Christian way, how we should prioritize God in everything we are and do, how we would need to value not so much the money we have but the dignity we are, children of God, now and forever.
Let’s try, beginning from me. We may even succeed and become better “slaves” of the only One that can definitely satisfy the best desires of our heart.