DAILY HOMILIES #wealth

My brothers and sisters, have you written your will? If God were to demand your soul this very night, would He call you a fool or a wise person? According to St. Ambrose, “The things that we cannot carry with us are not our own. Virtue alone is the companion of the dead. Mercy alone follows us—and mercy alone gains abodes for the departed.”

There is a saying: “Do not spend your health trying to make money because all the money in the world cannot buy back your health.” Similarly, we can say: “Do not spend your soul trying to gain the world because all that the world contains cannot buy back your soul.” Never get so busy that you do not have time for personal prayer and daily examination of conscience (which is the act of checking up on your soul)

Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The question is: “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his soul?”

Children are the future. If you fail to properly educate one child, at least morally, you literally destroy an entire generation. For Jesus, leading one child astray through bad example is such a grievous crime deserving of death by drowning with a millstone hung around one’s neck.

Like the steward who had to let go of what would have come to him as profit, Jesus is telling us today to make sacrifices, to let go of the vain things and fleeting pleasures of life for the greater good of making heaven. Our attachment to wealth and material possessions often obstacles the practice of our Christian virtues.

Are you struggling to accept Jesus’s teachings? Does the cross seem too heavy for you? Ask God to help you. Prayer is the key. Jesus says: “With men, it is impossible.” Relying on your strength alone (intelligence, money, self-discipline, connections, etc.), you cannot be Christian. You must be connected to God through daily prayers to gain the strength to live out your Christian call. Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5).

Is my desire for God greater than my desire for material riches and luxuries? Haven’t I made a god of my possessions? In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus says: “Everyone who has left their 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). Entering Heaven will be hard for anyone who worships their wealth.

The sad reality is that just as the Jews did not believe (even Jesus’ disciples doubted), many Christians today still cannot pick a side as to what they believe - whether the devil or God. Some of us still fear the devil more than God. We must ask ourselves: Which kingdom do I belong to? If I say I belong to God, do I live by the principles of God’s kingdom?

Do You Want To Live Forever? Do what Jesus says - Keep God’s Commandments: “Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honour your father and your mother.” The essence of these commandments is to love your neighbour as yourself.

The parable of Lazarus teaches us that one could be ‘helped by God’ and still live in abject poverty. With this parable, Jesus teaches that being poor despite your religiosity does not mean God has failed or that He is powerless. Does it surprise you that Lazarus, who lived in abject poverty (on earth), was sitting at the feet of Abraham in heaven?

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.

Money is useless without your soul. Do you feel blessed with some money? Has your business prospered? Then “give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:13-14). Do you have any extra money and you are thinking of what investment to do? Are you thinking of building a new barn? “You have it in the bellies of the poor,” says St. Basil and St. Ambrose.