Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
“For we brought nothing into the world, just as we shall not be able to take anything out of it.” (Timothy 6:7) A stark reminder today from St. Paul that, (more plainly said) “we can’t take it with us.” Can you and I, like Paul, be content with simply having the basics of “food and clothing”? As Paul also reminds us with this oft-quoted verse in today’s First Reading, “For the love of money is the root of all evils….” What wisdom lies there!
And found elsewhere in Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews, “Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have….” (13:5a)
Content has been one of my preferred words more recently. Happiness seems too fleeting and an often limited emotional state, but contentment seems attainable whether through grace or discipline (or most likely a combination of the two). However, being “content with what you have” doesn’t necessarily mean being content with how things are when change and growth is needed. In today’s passage from Paul’s letter we also read of him encouraging Timothy to not be complacent in a sense. Rather, to keep striving and “compete well for the faith” – “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” And don’t these lead to true contentment?
In today’s brief gospel passage (Luke 8:1-3), we read of Jesus journeying from place to place accompanied by the “Twelve” as well as “some women” including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, “and many others who provided for them out of their resources.” Similarly, if we turn to another of Paul’s letters (Romans,16) we read of Phoebe, a “minister of the church,” also sharing her resources, “...benefactor to many and to me as well.”
As we strive to be content with what we have, may those of us who happen to have more prayerfully consider sharing our gifts and resources like those women both named and unnamed. And let us pray for one another, as well as the greater Church, to be more content and less complacent. Amen.
~Eileen Miller