Monday of the 29th week in Ordinary Time
Readings of the day: Ephesians 2:1-10; Psalm 100:1b-2, 3, 4ab, 4c-5; Luke 12:13-21
Readings of the day: Ephesians 2:1-10; Psalm 100:1b-2, 3, 4ab, 4c-5; Luke 12:13-21
Do we not hear often of the value of
poverty? Pope Francis has invited us to be “a Church of the poor… for the
poor.” Perhaps we know many people (me included) who profess a vow of poverty
when we enter religious life. Our Church does not view it as good that so many
in our world; our city; our local communities live in deep material poverty. In
fact we advocate an end to destitution; a living wage for workers; just social
security and health care coverage… And yet there is value in poverty in another
sense.
How is this? And is there not also value
in being rich? Our readings say yes; there is value in richness, as long as, in
Jesus’ words in our Gospel reading, we are “rich in what matters to God.” But
what “matters to God”? In what are we invited to be rich; indeed to accumulate
and share our riches?
Our first reading from the Letter to the
Ephesians gives us an answer to this question. The Letter to the Ephesians says
that “God… is rich in mercy.” Are we not also, then, invited to be “rich in
mercy” as God “is rich in mercy”?
St. John Paul II’s second Encyclical, written
in 1980, is called Dives in Misericordia;
“Rich in Mercy.” The title of this Encyclical letter is taken from our first
reading today: “God… is rich in mercy.” Just as Jesus laments greed in our
Gospel reading, the storing up of wealth by a few to the detriment of the many
in need, St. John Paul II laments in Dives
in Misericordia the problems of our world caused by the storing up of
wealth that is not of God. The pope criticizes social structures, especially in
wealthy nations, that deepen for so many “suffering, injustice, and poverty.”
He complains of a lack concern for “the common good” and, in its place, a
reduction of human relationship to individualism; failure to recognize the
sacredness of human life; the sacredness of marriage; the sacredness of God’s
creation; social structures that do not encourage merciful and equitable sharing
of wealth.
How, then, do we become “rich in what
matters to God”? It is not wrong to be materially wealthy yet, if we have
wealth, we are called to share it with those in need. If we have talents to put
at the service of community; of the Church, we are invited to share these, not
out of a misplaced notion of “What is in it for me” but out of love; because we
are a people of God who is “rich in mercy.” Some of us have money to contribute
to the poor; to a favorite charity; to our parish that in turn supports
initiatives for those in need inside and outside our parish. Some of us know
another person in need of forgiveness; someone healing from a broken
relationship. At the very least, we have small acts of kindness; our smile to
share (as the late Fr. Jack Rosse often reminded us!).
These are all ways, and I am sure we can
think of many more, in which we are and can be “rich in mercy”; “rich in what
matters to God.”
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