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| “The Worship of Mammon”, by Evelyn De Morgan, 1909 |
Reading 1: Isaiah 49:14-15
my LORD has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her
infant,
be without tenderness for the
child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
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Commentary on Is
49:14-15
This reading from Isaiah is a
part of the second “Servant of the Lord” oracles. The servant has promised
salvation to the captives and light to those in darkness. The response from Zion
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 62:2-3, 6-7,
8-9
R. (6a) Rest in God alone, my soul.
Only in God is my soul at
rest;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my
salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be
disturbed at all.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
Only in God be at rest, my
soul,
for from him comes my hope.
He only is my rock and my
salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be
disturbed.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
With God is my safety and my
glory,
he is the rock of my
strength; my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O
my people!
Pour out your hearts before
him.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
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Commentary on Ps
62:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
Psalm 62 is a hymn in praise
of God as rock and fortress. This song
is one of deep and abiding faith. The singer trusts only in God and is at peace
in God’s abiding love.
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Reading 2: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Brothers and sisters:
Thus should one regard us: as
servants of Christ
and stewards of the mysteries
of God.
Now it is of course required
of stewards
that they be found
trustworthy.
It does not concern me in the
least
that I be judged by you or
any human tribunal;
I do not even pass judgment
on myself;
I am not conscious of
anything against me,
but I do not thereby stand
acquitted;
the one who judges me is the
Lord.
Therefore do not make any
judgment before the appointed time,
until the Lord comes,
for he will bring to light
what is hidden in darkness
and will manifest the motives
of our hearts,
and then everyone will
receive praise from God.
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Commentary on 1
Cor 4:1-5
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Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34
Jesus said to his disciples:
“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 God and
mammon.
“Therefore I tell you, do not
worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you
will wear.
Is not life more than food
and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they
gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father
feeds them.
Are not you more important
than they?
Can any of you by worrying
add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about
clothes?
Learn from the way the wild
flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even
Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass
of the field,
which grows today and is
thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide
for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say,
‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’or
‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans
seek.
Your heavenly Father knows
that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God
and all these things will be
given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow;
tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its
own evil.”
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Commentary on Mt
6:24-34
Jesus
continues his Sermon on the Mount, being very clear about what must be placed
first in the life of his disciples. Here the word Mammon is used, an Aramaic
word meaning wealth. The Lord does not deny that people need the physical
things of the world (i.e. food, clothing, and water) but tells them that if
they have faith in God and pursue the things of God’s Kingdom, the heavenly
Father will provide for them. He goes further to say that, if they are
constantly focused on material goods, they will not extend their lives even a
little.
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Homily:
It seems hard to believe,
given the challenging weather we’ve been having, that spring is right around
the corner. It is so unusual that I have
heard blatant threats being made against Punxsutawney Phil for having lied when
the weather predicting ground hog predicted an early spring. While I can’t remember the event
specifically, I seem to recall a Michigan based rodent correctly predicted the
current situation.
Never the less, spring is predicted
and coincidentally Lent is almost upon us.
This Wednesday we celebrate the beginning of our season of
preparation. As we prepare mentally for
the discipline of Lent, thinking about what we will target; it is useful for us
to take a close look at what Jesus has to say in the Gospel just proclaimed.
The passage from Saint
Matthew’s Gospel is part of the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount that also included
the Beatitudes from which Jesus launched into a discourse about how we, as his
followers, are to follow God. Over the
course of several sections he speaks about the various commandments and how we
need to go further if we are to follow the spirit of the Law.
In the passage proclaimed
today, the Lord focuses on the first commandment:
I am the LORD your God: you shall not
have strange Gods before me.
While this language
represents the typical formula for the commandment, the language from Exodus 20:3-5a refines our
understanding.
You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness
of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath
the earth; you shall not bow down before them or serve them.
Jesus takes that
understanding further. He tells us that
we create idols in our lives without even thinking about it. In the encyclical
letter, Lumen fidei, a letter begun by Pope Benedict XVI and finished by Pope
Francis, faith is contrasted with idolatry.
In place of faith in God, it seems better to worship
an idol, into whose face we can look directly and whose origin we know, because
it is the work of our own hands. Before an idol, there is no risk that we will
be called to abandon our security, for idols "have mouths, but they cannot
speak" (Ps 115:4). (Lumen fidei, no. 13)
I’ll tell a little story on
myself to illustrate this point. As many
of you know I really enjoy sailing. I
have sailed since I was 9 years old and it is a great passion of mine. About ten years ago I started racing in big
boats (those thirty feet and over that can be classified as a second home because
they have a head [bathroom], a galley [kitchen] and births [beds]. The boats I sailed and raced on were not
mine, they were owned by friends or relatives.
As in all things where one spends a great deal of time of emotional
capital, I have thought about getting a boat of my own.
As I pondered this
possibility, it became very clear to me that when we acquire something of value
(really almost anything – a house, a car, a boat or even wealth for example)
whatever we own, owns us as well. If that item is not just of financial value
but also has intrinsic or sentimental value, we feel compelled to take care of
it, dedicate time to being with it, take pleasure and perhaps even pride in
ownership. In our society, both
ownership and pride in ownership are expected – they are marks of social
status.
Now let us step back and
examine what we just observed about things.
It is so easy to move from owning things out of necessity (necessity to
provide for ourselves and our families) to owning things for the sake of ownership,
pride, avarice, or as the Lord says “mammon.”
The question that begs to be
asked as we consider this is; what is enough and what is too much? How can we
tell when what we need becomes greed?
We look at scripture first to
see what God wants from us. He wants us
to be thinking of him constantly – not golf or vacations. He wants us to expend effort to know him to
seek his grace and favor, not to spend our waking hours daydreaming about a
really hot car or our vacation home up North.
When we do these things, when we dream about the huge fish we will catch
instead of about how much we want to please God through our service we have
slipped over the line and started to create an idol – a false god which “cannot
speak.”
We must consider that like a
house, a car, a boat, or a portfolio of investments, our relationship with the
Lord requires time, energy and commitment.
Since there is only so much time and energy possible, when we
prioritize, placing God first as we are instructed to do in the first
commandment, something else must take a back seat. Creating balance in our lives between God,
family, career, and things is a huge challenge.
As we consider our Lenten
journey that begins this coming Wednesday with ashes, let us contemplate the
idols we have created knowingly or unknowingly in our lives and find ways to
redirect our energy toward finding balance in our lives and building the spiritual
gifts that do not perish and never go out of style.
Pax
[1]
ALTRE
[2]
The picture is “The Worship of Mammon”, by Evelyn De Morgan, 1909
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and
is for private use only.
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