2.5 Response
STAGE 2: Awareness of Self
MY MONEY
SUPPORTING GROWTH
RESPONSE
Aim: To realise that often our responses to money and prosperity subscribe to the wisdom of the world.
Readings
The parable of the rich fool (Lk 12:13-21): Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me”. But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions”. Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’. But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God”.
Earthly wisdom (LEW 80): “Earthly wisdom is love for the things of this world. Worldly men and women secretly subscribe to this wisdom when they set their hearts on worldly possessions and strive to become rich. They institute court proceedings and engage in needless disputes to acquire wealth or hold on to it. Most of the time they are thinking, speaking, acting with the sole aim of acquiring or keeping some temporal possession. They pay little or no attention to their eternal salvation or to the means of saving their souls, such as Confession, Holy Communion, prayer, etc., except in an offhand way out of routine, once in a while, and for the sake of appearances”.
Comment
The parable narrated by Jesus refers to a man without a name. It’s quite typical of Luke to speak of rich people without giving them a name. The message is clear: many people think that riches or power makes them feel “someone important”. You can dress a doll as much as you want, but you will never make it a woman. If one evolves only outside, he or she cannot evolve inside. In truth such a person is a “nobody”. Jesus says it clearly: “What’s the use to earn the entire world if you lose your soul”, your identity, your psyche, your inner freedom, your family, your friends, the meaning of your life?
The problem is not with money, Montfort would say, but with our heart, when it subscribes to the wisdom of the world and brings a person to become rich only for selfish purposes.
One day a young man asked his master, “Rabbi, what do you think of money?” “Look out the window”, the master said. “What do you see?” “I see a woman with a child, a coach pulled by two horses and a farmer going to the market” “Very well. Now look at the mirror. What do you see?” “Well, I see myself, of course!” “Now, think: both the window and the mirror are made of glass. It’s enough to have a very thin layer of silver on the glass and you can see only yourself”. That’s what money can do to us: just little of it can blind us from real life.
Personal Reflection and Sharing
What is my unhealthy way to respond to the energy of money and possessions?
What is it I’m losing most when I worry too much about money?
[2-5] CALL RESPONSE COMMITMENT PRAYER