Tag: riches

The Winning Ticket

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, spirituality4 Comments

Monday, October 22, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102218.cfm

Today, in Mercy, our readings are all about riches. How appropriate that seems in a week where the whole country is absorbed in a $1.6 billion dollar lottery dream!

How many news bits this week showed interviews with John and Jane Q. Public, informing us of how they might use such winnings. Of course, all reports indicated an amazingly altruistic response to a winning ticket. It seems everyone will help his unfortunate brother-in-law, and buy his mail carrier new shoes. Hmm? I wonder?

Eph 9_4 God rich

Not so with Gospel Farmer today. He hits the jackpot in the fields and, as many of us might, decides to keep every last grain for himself. Oops! On the night of that decision, he dies, leaving the grain behind along with his selfish legacy.

Jesus tells us:

Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.

Paul tells us what it does consist of:

God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us,
… brought us to life with Christ,
raised us up with him …

We are to live among one another as mirrors of this Divine kindness and richness — not holding on to every last – very transitory- grain of our “possessions”.

Friends, every one of us, through our Baptism, already holds the winning ticket to the only treasure that lasts – eternal life. May our lives reflect that immense grace in deeds of love and mercy.

Music: Earthen Vessels – St. Louis Jesuits

Who’s First?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, dying, Eternal Life, spirituality3 Comments

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082118.cfm

first Last

Today, in Mercy, our readings are full of “either – or” talk, opposing categories that render us either blessed or damned:

  • rich or poor
  • death or life
  • first or last

The distance between these contrasts appears to be measured in possessions and power:

  • Ezekiel pronounces God’s Word to the Prince of Tyre: “ … your heart has grown haughty from your riches…”
  • The responsorial from Deuteronomy cautions: “It is I – not you- Who give life and deal death.”
  • And the Gospel advises, “Anyone who has given up (possessions) for My sake … will inherit eternal life.”

For centuries, Christians have struggled with these concepts. It is counterintuitive to want to divest of one’s “riches”. Yet Jesus is telling us that it is almost impossible not to be coöpted by our possessions – not to have our spirits so distracted by their acquisition and retention that they displace God as the center of our lives. Jesus says is like a camel trying to pass through a needle’s eye.

Ezekiel suggests that to believe we possess anything is an illusion. Everything can be taken from us in an instant. Jesus says the illusion will be flipped in the Kingdom of Heaven where the “first”and “last” will switch places.

These are radical concepts that each Christian must absorb into her own life through prayer and service in order to find grace for her own circumstances. Life is not “either/or” for most of us. There is a lot of grey where we constantly weigh what God would want of us.

Through prayer and service, we can invite God to patiently change our perception of where true riches lie. The degree of change will determine whether we possess our “riches”, or they possess us.

Music: Only Jesus – Casting Crowns