Monday in the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time at Mississippi Abbey
Scripture Readings: Eph 12:1-10; Lk. 12:13-21
Today Jesus tells us how to stop being a fool! A fool sets his/her heart on what is not pervasive, enduring, and deep.
Psalm 38 tells us that “a moth will devour all one treasures.” What one “treasures” is one’s personal ethic. It is personal ideas about good and evil and the right and wrong way to behave towards them. This goes to the heart of the human condition. It is a worldview. We “fell” when Adam and Eve took to themselves the knowledge of good and evil. They took to themselves a personal ethic, one other than that given them by God. This complicates a person’s life. The first consequence of this for Adam and Eve was that they discovered they were naked and hid from God. They tried to fashion clothing so as to even hide from each other. Personal ethics do not unite; communal ethics do. That is why we live by a Rule.
A Rule provides principles. Principles provide truth that forms the binding norms for our decisions and conduct. Principles are important-in-themselves and it is the important that motivates a person. They form a perimeter for our actions which help us make right decisions at the right time. But more than that, principles should provide motivation to use them. To do that, those observing the principles must have a common goal or end. To know that goal they must be grounded in a story and a community that lives out that story. That story cannot just be interesting. It must be a worldview that informs her and sets her freedom in motion toward becoming a certain kind of person and not another.
St. Paul tells the Romans (8:5) “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on things of the Spirit.”
Jesus knows we are social beings. So, principles motivate when they are OUR principles (assuming a person is included and respected in a community). Because of the way private principles separate one from God and from others, it is very important to note that we put OUR principles before ONE’S OWN personality.
Jesus is telling us that the main obstacle to holiness is selfishness. Greed is not a bad habit; it is a worldview. The solution to greed is generosity. It is a worldview that stresses giving oneself to the good of others. That is the story Jesus came to tell. The ethic of generous giving of self is how we become “rich in things that matter to God.” “God loves a cheerful giver.” Yet, it is this that distinguishes the cheerful giver from the fool: God loves uncheerful ones, too, but cheerful ones know it!
Monday in the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time at Mississippi Abbey
Scripture Readings: Rom 4:20-25; Lk 12:13-21
There is a story of a conversation between a young and ambitious lady and an older woman who knew life. Said the young lady, “I will learn my trade.” “And then?” said the older woman. “I will set up in business.” “And then?” “I will make my fortune.” “And then?” “I suppose that I shall grow old and retire and live on my money.” “And then?” “Well, I suppose that someday I will die.” “And then?” Hopefully before then the young lady will hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Today, we hear again Jesus sticking to His primary purpose and brushing off those who seek Him for this-worldly material problems and directing them instead to “what matters to God.”
The contrast is between a self-centered relationship with God and a relationship totally given to God in acknowledgement that He is better than one’s happiness. The spiritual life is a matter of patterning one’s life after Christ crucified. Paul illustrates this in his letter to the Romans.
Just as Abraham lived his life according to faith in what could not be seen and was so counter-intuitive, so too one who believes that a man crucified as a criminal and raised from the dead can give an example of a life lived for a deeper purpose. In both cases a life lived counter to social convention had a credibility grounded deep in the human heart. To live thus was empowered by the object of faith.
That is what Jesus is talking about in the parable of the rich man with an abundant harvest (the man commonly referred to as “the rich fool”). The man put his faith in wealth and adjusted his life to its temporary nature. He obeyed this faith. The object of his faith is what makes him a fool.
Faith has content and an act. The content of faith for Abraham was God; for the rich fool it was wealth. More precisely, the content of the rich fool’s faith was the promise of satisfaction-on-demand that wealth gave. For Abraham the content of faith was the promise of God. The act of faith for both was obedience.
It is a matter of what we set our hearts on. That is how we direct our hunger and thirst for righteousness. Abraham and Paul were also men of wealth. Their hearts were set on the wealth and the ego-gratification that comes with success. Then God touched them. Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. It must have been an interior appearance because it affected Paul’s life unlike external appearances affected the disciples after the resurrection. Immediately Paul’s heart was set on the intrinsically important rather than the satisfying. His memory of what matters most was converted. He lived with a new intention. And so his whole life changed.
He passed it on. He told the Colossians, “set your mind on things that are above.” These are the things “that matter to God.” These are the things that are Jesus’ primary purpose. Perhaps Paul was thinking of the Rich Fool when he told the Colossians, “Put to death whatever in you is earthly…” including “greed, which is idolatry.” He uses the analogy of stripping off the old self like old clothing. Instead, “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. …Forgive each other… and clothe yourselves in love so you can live in harmony.”
To do this we prefer the object of faith of the crucified Christ to our own happiness. Want that.
Monday in the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time at Mississippi Abbey
Scripture Readings: Eph 3:2-12; Lk 12:39-48
Cornell University researchers surveyed U.S. college professors and found that, despite having high salaries, economists (who believe that self-interest drives human behavior) were more than twice as likely as those in other disciplines to contribute no money to private charities.
Psychologists tell us that greed stems from a basic fear of life. It is driven by a fundamental sense of deprivation. That’s plausible, but not necessarily true. Jesus says this is foolishness. Fear and a sense of deprivation are part of everyday life lived apart from God. Interestingly, He says there will be woe for those who store up treasures for themselves here on earth, but are not rich in what matters to God. What are the “treasures” Jesus is talking about?
Psalm 38 tells us that “a moth will devour all one treasures.” What one “treasures” is ones personal ethic. It is personal ideas about good and evil and the right and wrong way to behave towards them. This goes to the heart of the human condition. We “fell” when Adam and Eve took to themselves the knowledge of good and evil. They took to themselves a personal ethic, one other than that given them by God. This (like puberty) complicates a person’s life. The first consequence of this for Adam and Eve was that they discovered they were naked and hid from God. They tried to fashion clothing so as to even hide from each other. Personal ethics do not unite; communal ethics do. That is why we live by a Rule.
A Rule provides principles. Principles provide truth that forms the binding norms for our decisions and conduct. They form a perimeter for our actions which help us make right decisions at the right time. But more than that, principles should provide motivation to use them. To do that those observing the principles must have a common goal or end. To know that goal they must be grounded in a story and a community that lives out that story. We’ve seen how the story economists believe affects their personal ethics.
St. Paul tells the Romans (8:5) “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on things of the Spirit.”
Jesus knows we are social beings. So principles motivate when they are OUR principles (assuming a person is included and respected in a community). Because of the way private principles separate one from God and from others, it is very important to note that we put OUR principles before ONE’S OWN personality.
Jesus is telling us that the main obstacle to holiness is selfishness. The solution to greed is generosity. It is giving oneself to the good of others. That is the story Jesus came to tell. The ethic of generous giving of self is how we become “rich in things that matter to God.” “God loves a cheerful giver.” He loves uncheerful ones, too, but cheerful ones know it!