Chez Mammon

JMJ
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The Readings for the 11th Saturday, Tempus per Annum

• 2 Chronicles 24:17-25
• Matthew 6:24-34

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?

Matthew 6:27 (NABRE)

WORRYING, SO GOES THE ONLINE WISDOM, is a form of Atheism. It seems to arise from something said by the Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, or it could be Pastor Rick Warren. Online quotes are so frustrating because they just get cited over and over. This seems true, but who said it first? Well, we can trace it back to Jesus in one way or another: worrying is not something Jesus told us to do. It’s interesting that the Church’s lectionary for daily Masses has us read the “don’t worry” passage preceded by Verse 24, ending “You cannot serve God and mammon.” So the Church would have us read all of these meanings together:

• You cannot serve two masters
• You cannot serve God and Mammon
• You cannot serve God and worry about stuff
  • don’t worry about food
  • don’t worry about clothes
  • don’t worry about nothing
  • Today is bad enough, tomorrow will come when it does (in 24 hours)
• Trust God.

New Polity’s podcast on Good Money (starts here) convinced me that most of our world is based on worry: worry about what others think about me, worry about what will happen tomorrow, worry about what might happen after the fact (that’s what a lot of social anxiety is – worry about a conversation after it’s been done). Everything from toiletries to technology is sold using “what will others think of you” schemes. We don’t want money so much as we want to do things with money that will make us fit in. As I’m thinking about this passage I had to turn in a budget for the forthcoming fiscal year. Although I have lived on a monthly budget for most of this century, this is the first time I’ve had to turn in an organization budget. Look, Ma: an entirely new way to worry!

Or, as an old adage has it, “Man plans, God laughs” or even, “Man proposes, God disposes”. We’re only able to see today, only able to know right now. Planning may be good stewardship, but it’s not a way to fend off worry. It can, in fact, inculcate it.

Where your treasure is, there is your heart (as we learned yesterday). If your heart is anywhere other than in God then you are certain to experience the changeability of things. And this will cause you to worry.

Mind you, the contrary practice of Trusting in God, take a long time to develop this side of Judgement Day. Nevertheless, it is a good practice to take up.

My Jesus, I trust in thee.

Things are bad. Things are good. There’s enough money or food. There’s not enough money or food. There’s rising crime and inflation. Things are peaceable and prosperous. There’s danger from earth, wind, or fire. It’s pretty safe. No matter what the situation, it is well with my soul because I trust in Jesus.

Or, at least, that’s where I want to be.

My false hearts pull me in many directions, not the least of which is the desire to “make people happy”. I put that in quotes because I don’t really want to make people happy. I want them to be happy with me. My ego has to be comforted, my ego has to be inflated, my ego has to be validated. The fake hearts (fake identities) we make up have to be continually validated because they do not pump any real blood. Like vampires or parasites, they live on the lifeforce offered by their hosts and by others. Our false selves drain us of love and emotion so that our real hearts, tuned to God, weaken and begin to fade away. They can never be wholly destroyed, so there is always hope, but we do love our false idols of pride.

You cannot serve both God and Mammon.