Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

I think a lot of people focus on the "love of money is the root of all evil" part of today's first scripture reading (1 Timothy 6:2c-12).  To be sure, there are all kinds of ways that we can and should meditate on that in our own lives - where am I loving money in my own life?  Maybe it is in my desire to have the newest latest technology; maybe it is in working too many hours in order to make more and more money, to the detriment of my relationships with family and friends, etc.

But I think the context of this passage is important, too.  Paul is writing to Timothy to advise that he take care about those spiritual teachers who are out there, proclaiming that they have the best religious message.  Paul claims that those false teachers are driven by a love of money, as well as a "morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes".  In other words, there are people then, as in our own day, who love to go around proclaiming that they have the one true vision, over against all the other ones. 

I think of the much-maligned televangelists, some of whom proclaim that their teaching is the only one that can be the correct way to heaven, and at the same time requesting money to support the ministry.  I think of our own day - the snazzy books, elegant media presentations, and state of the art church architecture and worship music that some people offer as a way of convincing others that THEIRS is the one true path.  I think of the curious consumerist phenomenon of selling Bibles - that there are Bibles, all with the exact same translation that are marketed to different target groups: couples' Bibles, youth Bibles (especially ones that look like glossy four color magazines), home boy Bibles, women's Bibles, men's Bibles, Bibles aimed at spiritual devotion (as if ALL people who buy Bibles aren't somehow looking for some way to be more spiritually devoted).  It is one thing to need a Bible to replace a copy that is falling apart - it is another to believe that a youth Bible is somehow quantifiably different that the same Bible with just a plain cover on the front.  If a person needs reflections appropriate to their age and stage in life, perhaps buying just one Bible for the forseeable future, and then supplementing with some of those spiritual Bible reading guides would suffice?

I digress, but just a little bit.  My point is that I think Paul is concerned that people sometimes pay attention to the outer covers, to the best-sounding rhetoric, the nicest looking things (all of which cost money) without looking at the other costs associated with them.  Paul writes that the toublemakers are easily identified not only by their love or argument, but by the way they cause envy and rivalry and suspicions about other people.  (After all, don't we often envy the latest new technological gadget?)  But of course, the way we can tell the true teachers apart is that they promote all the virtues: faith, love, gentleness, kindness, and the like.

We have to cultivate the ability to look not just at the glitz, but at the effects of the message.  After all, as the gospel reading reminds us (Luke 8:1-3), Jesus just wandered around, poor to the extent of needing others' resources - not much glitz in a message proclaimed by someone wearing sandles and homespun cloth.  But then isn't it truly good news that his message is free - available to anyone at all, even if they can't afford the newest and best?

- Jana M. Bennett