Deacon Tom Writes
“First Things First”
In
today’s gospel Jesus touches upon a profound truth about our human condition
when he says, “For where your treasure is,
there also will be your heart”.
Jesus understands our human dynamic. He knows that we put our energy
into the things we are most interested in and that we invest our time and
resources pursuing the things that are most important to us. The things we like
doing fill up our calendars and empty our wallets!! And that’s the way it
should be.
It
is interesting to note, however, that last week’s gospel was also a teaching
about material things. If you recall Jesus told the parable about the rich man
with the abundant harvest who tore down his barns and built bigger ones so he
could store away his wealth, “…for many
years”… so he could “…rest, eat,
drink and be merry” for years to come. It seems that our need to
accumulate wealth beyond the needs for today as a measure of our success and to
assuage our worries about the future is systemic to our human condition.
Jesus
has many warnings about the problems or challenges concerning wealth. Here are
a few you may recall: “Amen, I say to
you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven” MT
19:23. And also, “Again I say to you,
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who
is rich to enter the kingdom of God" MT 19:24. Or this one from Luke
6:24,“But woe to you who are rich, for
you have received your consolation”.
I
don’t believe Jesus is interested in having more “poor people” in the world. Heaven
knows there are too many now! Jesus’ admonition is so that we don’t set our
hearts on what we have, that we don’t identify ourselves and others by what we
have or don’t have, or that we don’t judge people by their possessions or
status. Jesus wants us to depend upon him
for all our needs and for us to turn to
him and trust in him to
satisfy all those desires that he places within our hearts.
One
sure way to know what God wants for us is for us to put him in our calendars. You
know, like they say in the business world, “Let’s do lunch!”. Well, maybe not
lunch, but we may be able to set some time aside for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament where we can sit silently in the
presence of our Lord and listen to what he has to say to us. That could very
well be the most important activity of our week. From the spiritual perspective
it is certainly a matter of getting around to first things first.
Enjoy
the day!
Deacon
Tom
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