REFLECTION You can look around a lot and the Gospel today makes sense. It points at how we can get caught up in what we own and what people have. It’s about possessions and how they take us over. Or how we react when we lack what we once had. We enjoy wealth but we have a mixed reaction to it. St Ignatius mentioned three obstacles to our faith – wealth, honour, pride. He saw from his own experience that people wanted wealth so that they would be highly thought of – it can be right school, the right address, the right bank. And pride in what we have. And we know things can change very quickly. Shares go down; you may die or become ill. Rich in whose sight? The battle lies between being rich in the sight of the world and being rich in the sight of God. The opposite of the obstacles St Ignatius mentioned are simplicity, integrity, humility. Humility is pride in who we are – children of God, brothers and sisters, and me just as I am. I need nothing outside of myself to make me feel good about myself. This too is simplicity. What we have is gift, given to us for the good of the world, the community, the neighbourhood, not just for the good of myself. Love not wealth Ask in the end what matters, judged on love not on wealth. Or if wealth, on what we did with our wealth. It can lead us away from God very easily. Do we live like him? Be rich in God – in mercy, love, forgiveness and justice.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 22:34:43 +0000
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