Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes the Word of God is spiritual and sublime, and other times it is plain, practical, and curt. Today, it seems to be the latter. St. James is warning the rich that their time for weeping and wailing is coming. This is especially tough for us, because compared to most of the world, we are rich. Having running water, a stable source of income, and a dry roof makes a person more wealthy than 2/3 of the world. For instance, many of us don’t directly hire people to work for us, but we all purchase plenty of things at low prices that don’t include a just wage for the international workers who made them. We may not feel wealthy, but most people who read this have far more monetary wealth than Jesus ever did. The big question is, what are we doing with our wealth? How is our wealth changing us?
St. James asks us, are your possessions and wealth a testimony against you? If you lost your wealth, would decay be a witness to the sinful ways it was obtained, saved, or spent? Whoa to you! But, if you shared your wealth with the poor, or used your power to make others’ lives better, than your wealth is a blessing to you and to the Kingdom. If you lost it, the loss would be a felt in the whole community. Your downfall would testify to your innocence, instead of guilt.
The psalmist addresses how wealth changes us; are we jealous of those who become wealthier than we are? Do we trust in our wealth and power, or do we trust in God? Which is more reliable; the creator, or the material items God and humanity have created? As the psalmist proclaims, one of these will serve us through this life and into eternity; the other will decay along with our bodies at the end of this life.
Take a moment to consider the effect of money on your life. Perhaps you haven’t accumulated much yet, but the pursuit of money (or the things it can buy) possesses you. Whatever your monetary successes and challenges, let’s take time to bring Jesus into our financial life again today. May we remember Jesus’ words; ‘if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out!’ Or, perhaps, ‘if your wallet and bank account cause you to sin, give them away!’ Better to enter the Kingdom as one of the Blessed Poor than to be thrown into fire with the dollars we seek. Let’s talk with Jesus about what we trust, and what degree we seek to serve the Kingdom with our work and our earnings. May our wealth be a blessing to our neighbors near and far. Amen.
-Chris Nieport