DAILY HOMILIES #greed

Is my desire for God greater than my desire for material riches and luxuries? Haven’t I made a god of my possessions? In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus says: “Everyone who has left their houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29). Entering Heaven will be hard for anyone who worships their wealth.

The devil will never tempt you with something you don’t want. Hence, we cannot completely blame the devil for our fall. For instance, Adam and Eve fell because they wanted to be like God. The devil exploits our desires (whether good or bad) by offering shortcuts.

We behave like Herod when we don’t let others shine. Whenever we hold on to power, even to the detriment of others, we act like Herod. We may condemn Herod’s action, but when we examine our conscience, we realize we have done worse than Herod in the past. How often have I felt so threatened by the success of others to the extent of doing all in my power to pull them down, get them out of the way, or even eliminate them?

Even though the land of Sodom was a beauty to behold, the people who lived there had no fear of God. They were great and wicked sinners. Like many Christians today, Abram’s cousin, Lot, chose material prosperity over spiritual prosperity. This is what greed does to us. It makes us put the passing things of this world over and above God.

What does it mean to be rich towards God? It is refusing to live according to the passions of our flesh or following the desires of the flesh and the senses. To be rich towards God is to place priority on the things that pertain to God over and above the things that bring about our material comfort. It is taking care of our souls rather than our flesh only.

If we all go by the principle of an eye for an eye, very soon we would all go blind. As much as we need to learn to let go and forgive, we should not forget that being imperfect creatures, we also stand in need of the forgiveness and mercy of others. In our first reading today, we see how Jezebel connived to put Naboth to death simply for refusing to sell his land to King Ahab. It wasn’t the case that Ahab was a poor man, he was the king, he was the richest man in the whole nation of Israel but due to his insatiable greed, he couldn’t take his eyes off the property of poor Naboth. Greed is a very serious disease.

Watch out for any form of hatred in your heart. Why do you hate your fellow human being? Is it because of what they did to you or just because they are more popular than you? Could it be because this person is better than you in your workplace or business environment? Rather than trying to bring this person down by all means, why not go to him or her like Nicodemus to learn, why not go and ask them how they are able to do better than you? If they tell you, would you be willing to do it?

The honest truth is that riches bring a lot of happiness and security but there is a certain extent to which the continuous increase in riches no longer affects one’s state of happiness.

Abram’s behaviour is worth commending. First, God called him alone but he choose to go with Lot. Lot became rich by his association with Abram but soon Lot’s wealth became so much that there was now a quarrel between his servants that those of Abram. Still, it was Abram who sued for peace. He asked Lot to choose first. Abram was willing to settle for less so long as Lot was happy. Abram was not greedy.

Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Every time we fail to let our light shine as God’s children for the sake of money, we are literally betraying Jesus. We don’t have to disobey God’s commandments, lie, steal, kill etc. for the sake of money. Jesus said, whatever you want, just ask, seek and knock and it would be provided. (Matthew 7:7).

In conclusion, the Passion Narrative teaches us a lot about ourselves. The bitter truth is humanity has not changed at all since the time of Jesus. We are still ruled by money, we still betray one another, we are still stingy, we do not pray well, and we often act to please the crowd. Let us learn from history and avoid making the mistakes of those who killed Jesus.