Saturday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

In our First Reading, St. Paul proudly tells the Philippians that he has learned to be “self-sufficient” in nearly any situation, even as he praises them for their generosity toward him. This contrast is worth noting for a couple of reasons. In the first place, the desire for “independence” is very strong in our own society. Nearly all of us like to think of ourselves as fundamentally independent. Yet, in many ways, we are the least “self-sufficient” society imaginable. We constantly rely on each other for everything we have, want and need. We require the help of others for our food, our electricity, our medicine… the list of ways that we are dependent on each other seems to go on forever. Yet, much like St. Paul before the Philippians, we often insist on our own self-sufficiency, despite our continual need for help from one another. But, unlike St. Paul, we are not always so quick to recognize that the true source of all strength is in the one who created us. St. Paul can speak of himself as “self-sufficient” only because he recognizes that all that he has comes from the one who “empowers” him at all times and in all places. As such, he is “self-sufficient” only because of his almost total reliance on the mercy of God. A second reason the contrast is worth noting is that St. Paul wants to explain to the Philippians that, in giving to him, they are really giving to themselves. Since God provides him with everything he needs, St. Paul wants the Philippians to give to him only for their own benefit. Of course, we should not think that St. Paul is unaware that one of the ways that God is providing for him is through the generosity of the Philippians. Yet Paul is suggesting that even such generosity is utterly dependent on God, who “will fully supply” all that is needed, both to Paul and to those who give to him. The Philippians are called to give what they have to others, because it is in giving that they shall receive “profit” to their account, but they must also recognize that all that they have ultimately comes from the same places as all that St. Paul has: The glorious riches in Jesus Christ. For, as the oft-quoted “Prayer of St. Francis” states, “it is in giving that we receive.”

This emphasis on giving is echoed in the Gospel, where Jesus suggests that the purpose of wealth is to win others over to his message. While this may seem a strange thing for us to hear, it is important that we all recognize that the wealth of this world is temporary, not something that we have “in eternity,” Those who would truly serve God cannot allow themselves to make the mistake of seeing the acquisition of earthly wealth as an end in itself. Instead, we must recognize that all of our lives, including our economic prosperity, must be focused toward receiving “eternal dwellings” in the next life. The things that are praised and honored in this world but which fail to be focused on the next are all too often of mere “human esteem,” for they fail to have the proper focus.

In other words, St. Paul and Our Lord are both insisting that earthly wealth should always serve heavenly wealth. What we have in our possession is meant to be given for others. In some cases, this may be actual earthly wealth. In other cases, it may be our time. In still other cases, it could be our experience. In the end, the best way to understand both passages is to recognize that our lives are intended as gifts for others. Because, although we may not always like to remember it, we are not truly independent but are actually always interdependent. We need each other, and so the lives that we live ought to be lived as gifts for one another, as our lives themselves are continual gifts from God.

Matthew Minix