…an excerpt from Fr. Larry’s homily, August 5th
In the sight of God, it doesn’t make any difference if you have money or not. Some have come to the realization, the hard way, that money cannot bring richness to life: knowing one has a good heart...a generous spirit...friends and family...reaching one’s potential...of making the world a better place because of your presence...these are the real riches, these are the things that last in this world and the next. So, if we were to die tonight, (heaven forbid) would most of your riches go with you...or be left behind?
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Jesus was not oblivious to the need of neither money nor its implications. Therefore, it should come as no surprise, then, that sooner or later, somebody would ask Jesus for help in a financial matter. And in Sunday’s (the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 5th) gospel, someone did. “…Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
Even though Jesus expressed reluctance to arbitrate a family dispute about money, he used the occasion to offer some very practical, common-sense advice about life’s cash-flow column: “avoid greed in all its forms...a person’s possessions do not guarantee that person life or happiness.” This advice remains applicable in today’s society. In fact, there have been many studies over the past decades on stress in the family, especially the American family. We have all read about them, heard about them, and helped write them, or live with them.
For example, many of the studies say that the number one stress factor in families today is connected with economic, financial, and budgeting matters. Such stress crosses both genders and all age groups.
One author states that healthy families have to put it all into perspective. Meaning, they have to first learn to value one another, to affirm each other, to teach their children that your worth and importance cannot be measure by your bank account, your car, or your house.
After you worked all your life, Qoheleth says, are you really happy? If you kill yourself at trying to be rich or acting like you are, and miss the best years of your life, or the growing years of your children, what have you gained? Nothing, really. If our possessions tend to center on us, and one day we wake up to find that we have no friends, what have we gained? Nothing, really.
There’s no sin in having things, even money, or working hard. That’s a blessing, and we should thank God everyday for such gifts and the ability to do such work.
What we own is a blessing; it’s what owns us is a sin.
In the sight of God, it doesn’t make any difference if you have money or not. Some have come to the realization, the hard way, that money cannot bring richness to life: knowing one has a good heart...a generous spirit...friends and family...reaching one’s potential...of making the world a better place because of your presence...these are the real riches, these are the things that last in this world and the next. So, if we were to die tonight, (heaven forbid) would most of your riches go with you...or be left behind?