The most difficult times can produce the greatest spiritual blessings. God truly knows just what we need at every moment!

Friday, February 28, 2014

VIII Sunday in Ordinary Time - A


No one can serve two masters

It seems that the words of Christ in today's Gospel are not for the contemporary world. "Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will be wearing. Consider the birds ..." Does Jesus approve the idleness by this, does He really favour famous "blue birds " and "children flowers ", does He suggest the laziness, and support irresponsible people, counting on the "manna from heaven"? You can easily come to this conclusion by reading the words of today's Gospel only briefly and superficially. But we know that it is not so. He was (supposedly) the son of a craftsman and certainly knew very well how hard you have to work for "daily bread" and that in the sweat of your brow one should acquire the necessary measures to life. Certainly He doesn’t approve idleness and procrastination, irresponsibility and lack of creativity.

However, He warns us against the specific attention to the worldly goods, against the blindness of greediness, against the error of considering that my whole life is reduced to only these material dimensions. Are these warnings not for today? Let's see how many people so much "progressed" in their "resourcefulness", how they forgot everything else, that for them the whole life is summarized in securing worldly prosperity and well-being, even at the expense of others, at the expense of social justice at the expense of ordinary honesty. Whenever I read these words, I think of those who have forgotten that they live next to other people, that the world is beautiful and worthy of admiration and delight of those who have been blinded by so much "mammon" they see nothing else beyond money. They do not see their own family, children, friendship, eternal life, nothing else but money.

Does not want Jesus in these parables simply say: "You're not unhappy because starvation or because you are missing something, but because you requirements are for a large. Stop to amass and seek to collect what is secondary, and you'll definitely be happier"?

Does He not want to say also: "Trust in God rather than in your capabilities, systems, cleverness and your wealth, and you'll be much happier"?

I read somewhere once that, for example 260 richest people in the world have on their accounts as much as the annual income of three billion poorest, more that the poorer half of the world. What are they doing with the "mammon"? Is it not shocking? Is not that what Christ is talking about?

I recently found also this information: "The poor children in India, China and Pakistan, are sewing by hand the soccer balls for the big companies". These children cannot go to school, they have no toys, no childhood, but ..... their slave labor makes kind the lives of millions of other sports fans even unaware of this injustice. And as if that were not enough, according to UNESCO to provide schools for all the poor children in the world we need only $8 billion annually. At the same time to prepare the Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi 50 billion dollars were spend. Again, some people cannot even dream of school, when others spend a fortune on their pleasure.

But do we need to go that far. Let us look around us, our society, our systems and our lives. How much injustice is in it, how much blindness of mammon, how much selfishness and egoism, and arrogance....?

The "Mammon" blinded the world completely and Christ warns us before we fall in that blindness. He warns us also against quieting our conscience: "I still have to take care of myself and my family. I cannot feed all the hungry of the world. I have to ensure first my life and the life of my kids and then I'll be able to think about others' needs ..." Is it not an infatuation? The parable of the rich man and Lazarus imposes itself ... And the words of Jesus: "whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine ... you did it to me …" remain valid.

Lord do not let the mammon blind me so much that I don’t see the world and another people in it ...

Do not let me forget about your kingdom...

Because eventually.... whom I serve....?

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