DAILY HOMILIES #riches

Jesus teaches us to avoid telling lies and other dishonest practices for the sake of money: “He who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much… And if you have not been faithful with that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”(Luke 16:10-12) Someone once said: “If you lose money, you lose nothing. If you lose friends, you lose something, but if you lose your character (perhaps, in a bid to make money), you have lost everything.”

The steward made friends by reducing the debts of his master’s debtors. We are to make friends by giving away whatever is at our disposal. After all, nothing belongs to us in the first place. Empty we came, and empty we shall return.

To be covetous is to live in a world of “I”, “me”, and “myself”; a world where I care only for one person – me. To be covetous is to be like the rich man in the parable Jesus gave us in today’s Gospel passage, who thought only about himself in his plan to enjoy his riches.

If God could make a man as weak as Gideon, a successful war hero, it tells us that God can take “a nobody” like Mary and turn her into His mother; by this fact, she is the queen of heaven.

Even though the land of Sodom was a beauty to behold, the people who lived there had no fear of God. They were great and wicked sinners. Like many Christians today, Abram’s cousin, Lot, chose material prosperity over spiritual prosperity. This is what greed does to us. It makes us put the passing things of this world over and above God.

Today, we celebrate the memorial of Mary, the mother of the Church. Having completed the seven weeks of Easter, today is a day for us to pause a while and remember the unique role of Mary in the course of the whole Easter festivities and, in particular, to examine the total weight of the words Jesus spoke at the foot of the cross: “Behold, Your Mother.”

Jesus is not saying riches are sinful, rather, he wants us to consider riches as the lowest of all our priorities. This is the point St. Paul seeks to drive home when he said: “let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning.

There is another type of riches that Jesus encourages in our Gospel passage. It is the riches of detachment from this world’s goods for sake of the kingdom of God. It is the riches of generosity. According to Jesus: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29).

“When you ask for wisdom, riches become your complimentary gift.” Riches without wisdom is poverty waiting to happen. On the other hand, with wisdom, riches are never far away from a person. To be wise is to be truly rich even if one has no money.

Just as King Antiochus sought to persuade the boy with riches, many young men and women today have sold their souls to the devil following the mantra: “get rich or die trying.”

For instance, a Christian who steals or diverts public funds into his personal accounts only to go to Church for thanksgiving only worships money. God is not moved by such. Jesus says: “no one can have two masters.”

Reduce the time you spend on entertainment every day. Read books. Read good books. Try to finish one book every single week (or 1 month at least). Invest in wisdom. Be committed to self-improvement in everything you do. No need to pursue money, you can never catch it. Pursue wisdom and money will pursue you with speed and velocity.