Daily Marriage Tip for September 22, 2013:
What’s your shopping personality: In and out as quickly as possible; shopping as recreation; never met a bargain I didn’t like; research project? How do you reconcile your differences?
“So That When It Fails You…”
Pastor’s Column
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 22, 2013
“I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails,
you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
Luke 16:1-13
The gospel that we hear this weekend is found only in Luke. Jesus makes the interesting point that how we use our wealth – our money, time, and opportunities – is a very good indicator of our spiritual life and where our heart truly lies. Jesus calls wealth “dishonest” but what does he mean?
What we possess – whether it is our health, our money, or our time – gives the illusion that it is permanent or that it leads to lasting happiness when in fact everything on earth is a temporary condition. Jesus points out that what we have is now on loan to us, and that the object of life is to trade with our possessions so as to gain eternal possessions and win friends for ourselves and eternal life. Wealth on earth does not last.
Jesus points out that “worldly people” – people who are shrewd and know how to make money--are often better at what they do than the children of God are at earning true wealth in heaven. What opportunities have I squandered that God has given me? This gospel advises us to think about this and use our opportunities to win friends in heaven and on earth.
It is like a person taking a long ocean voyage in which he has many credits that are good for services and entertainment onboard the ship. Only a fool would amass more and more credits that are only valuable as long as one is on board! A wise person would want to take the excess credits and trade them for something valuable after disembarking from the ship. Many people accumulate pleasures and experiences and possessions as if this were the only world there is, without any reference to the world to come.
When I do an act of kindness for someone else, when I pray for the dead, when I give to the poor or help the food bank, tithe to my church, do some works of mercy, or pray and make sacrifices for others – all of these things and many others win us friends on earth and intercessors in heaven. All of us are really stewards of someone else’s possessions. When you think about it, everything that we have will one day pass on to someone else or disappear; so a wise person will be using this brief period of time that we call life on earth to become more and more a friend of God. Every person that I have assisted in life one way or another will be a friend for all eternity, while every selfish act is sterile and, in fact, deprives us of eternal joy.
Worldly people who do not listen to this gospel, or who think that this is the only life there is, will not be prepared when their money fails them because they don’t want to see it. Christ wants us to have true wealth and to use the time we have on earth to gain the value that really lasts.
Father Gary