Reflection
Today is Saturday, November 7th. It is the Saturday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time.
“I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
So, what is Jesus saying here? Frankly, I am not sure! So, I decided to do some research.
It seems that Jesus is NOT speaking of dishonest wealth the way we may think of dishonest wealth. Jesus is NOT inviting us to be unethical – to embezzle or to steal. However, he is speaking about worldly wealth. The reality of it is we are “of the world” in the sense that we live in an imperfect human existence. There is the propensity to sin, due to our broken human state, and so the world is fundamentally unjust. As a result, all of its wealth has injustice and unrighteousness intrinsically attached. Economies around the world are very complicated, so there are a number of reasons for this. We may, as individuals, strive to be ethical and honest in the way we accumulate wealth, but we live within a world in which the distribution of wealth, resources and money is very uneven and unjust.
So, what are we to do? First, we should seek ways to speak out against those injustices. Second, we should try to earn an “honest” living. Finally, and, perhaps most importantly, we should recognize that all that we have is a blessing from God and we should try to put what we have in the service of the Church and for the benefit of those who are less fortunate.
The system may fail, per se, however, if we make “friends” with worldly wealth by utilizing it to serve God and others, we will store up treasure for ourselves in heaven. The real danger comes when we see worldly wealth as an idol, as mammon necessary to serve no one but ourselves.
We are blessed to live where we live, in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. As such, we have been entrusted with great matters. How we live out that which we have been entrusted with lies within the ordinary decisions we make in everyday life. How we respond to opportunities to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, welcome the foreigner may seem inconsequential, but it matters. How we support the Catholic Church in her efforts to be a moral compass and advocate for social justice in the world today matters. Those are the simple, small matters that Christ is speaking of and entrusting to us in our time.
We are invited today to ponder this – How am I accumulating my wealth? Hopefully, as ethically as possible given the world in which we live. Who am I serving in the way I earn my living – God or mammon? In what ways can I make “friends” with worldly wealth so that I can store up what matters most – treasures in heaven.