Word to the Wise
Saturday, November 6, 2021 - Saturday in the 31th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 16:3-9, 16, 22-27 and Luke 16:9-15]"No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." [Luke]
NOVEMBER 6 BL. BONAVENTURE PAREDES, o.p, , HYACINTH LOPEZ, o.p and Companions, martyrs in the Spanish Civil War.
The gospels are clear about the dangers of material wealth. This is especially true in the Gospel According to Luke. Jesus' statement follows the parable of the Dishonest Steward in which a servant who is about to lose his job finds a way of making both himself and his employer look good in the eyes of the debtors of the employer! Jesus commends the rogue servant for using wealth (even someone else's) to help both himself and those in debt to his employer. In short, wealth in the Gospel According to Luke is an instrument to be used to help others and not something to be desired in itself. The parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21) demonstrates the danger of piling up wealth simply for personal security. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), which follows the parable of the Dishonest Steward in the same chapter shows the anesthetizing effect of great wealth which made Dives (the rich man) unaware of Lazarus at his doorstep.
This is about more than wealth in itself. It is about the relationship that can develop between a human person and "mammon" in which wealth creates a sense of power and superiority over those who are poor, or else a complete unawareness of those who go without food, shelter, health care every day, even in our own USA! It is about more than philanthropy, as commendable as that may be. What does material wealth do to the identity and faith of a person? As the saying goes, "Do I own my stuff, or does my stuff own me." The gospel clearly warns of the danger. How alert are we to that warning? AMEN