The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, September 23rd: Amos 8:4-7; 1 Tim 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13)

DO YOU SERVE GOD OR MAMMON?

In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus talked about money. “And now we’ll go to Frank in Cincinnati. You’re on ‘Money Talk with Jesus.’ What’s your question Frank?” “Hi Jesus. First-time, long-time. Love your show. Anyway, I’m thinking of rolling my 401k into municipal bonds. Is this a good long-term strategy?”

Oh wait, I’m sorry. Jesus was not a syndicated radio talk show host who discussed financial matters. What He did say about money is this: “No one 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 both God and mammon.”

The word mammon, by the way, is interesting. It is often described as being synonymous with the word money. Jesus’ quote is often translated, “You cannot serve both God and money.”

But mammon means a little bit more than just money. It is the Greek transliteration of the Jewish word that means roughly, “that in which one trusts.” So the word mammon really means wealth in which someone puts his faith; the assets a person relies on to take care of all his needs.

Jesus said if a person becomes devoted to wealth and puts his faith in money, then there’s no faith left for God. This is actually idolatry, the worst of all sins.

Sometimes this passage is interpreted to mean everyone should be poor. Usually Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler in Luke 18 are also cited: “Go and sell everything you have and give to the poor…. and come follow me.”

God certainly calls specific people to take a vow of poverty so they can better serve the Lord. Mother Teresa comes to mind. Apparently Jesus knew that the rich young ruler needed to break free of his wealth in order to save his soul. But in my experience, it seems the people who preach this poverty-for-all doctrine are really just resentful of rich people. They make themselves feel better when they declare that all rich people are going to Hell. I suspect these same folks would be the first ones to go out and buy a yacht if they ever won the lottery. They don’t really hate money, they just hate the fact that other people have more of it.

Besides, if everyone were poor, then who would be able to donate to the church? Jesus doesn’t want an entire society to live in squalor, with all the malnutrition and disease and despair that often accompanies it. He wants people to use their God-given talents and become successful—including financial success. Then they will be able to support their families and donate generously to the church and other charities.

The problem is when people put their trust in money. Remember what St. Paul wrote in his first letter to Timothy: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” This verse is often shortened: “Money is the root of all evil.” But that’s not what Paul said. It’s the LOVE of money that’s bad, not money itself.

I recently heard a priest say the amount of money spent each year in Connecticut’s two gambling casinos—by just Catholic residents of the state—is well into the hundreds of millions of dollars range. If just HALF of that money were instead donated to faith-related projects, then Catholic schools would be expanding rather than closing down; parish mortgages would be paid off and needed repairs would be done; and retired priests and nuns wouldn’t have to live in dilapidated buildings and eat dog food (or at least food barely fit for a dog).

Do you think God is impressed when someone goes to Mass on Sunday morning and tosses five dollars into the collection basket, and later that same day takes a bus to the casino and pumps hundreds of dollars into slot machines, while absolutely LUSTING for a jackpot? I don’t think so.

Jesus is asking us some tough questions this week: Are money and material goods the main focus of our life? Are we possessed by our possessions? If we lost all of our assets, could we still be happy?

That last question is really the key. No matter how much money we have, if we ever lost it all but still could manage to be at peace and have trust in God, knowing that He has a special plan for our life, then we are not “serving mammon.” We are not putting our faith in fleeting riches and ignoring the eternal, spiritual aspects of life. We are not committing the worst sin of all, idolatry.

It’s kind of a Catch-22. If we really don’t care about being rich, then God says it’s OK for us to become rich. But if being wealthy is our main focus in life, then God would rather that we remain poor (or at least lower-middle-class).

You see, more than anything else, God wants our soul. He wants us to be in Heaven with Him for all eternity. No matter how much wealth a person piles up now, it all will be rusting and rotting one hundred years from now. But the human soul is eternal. A hundred years from now will be merely the first minute of eternity.

God wants us to have an eternal perspective on life. When we see the big picture, it is obvious that God Himself is our only hope. Money and material goods can bring comfort and a short term sense of security, but wealth cannot save our souls for all eternity. That’s why we should never serve mammon. That’s why we should never put our faith and trust in mere money.

©2007