Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We continue to reflect on how we respond to what God is doing in your life. Events that at times are good and other times very difficult. How you respond to those events shapes your life, and your faith. Hopefully you use those occasions to stop and give a measured response to the crisis in your life, or you haven’t and you regret this. When you respond to this in a reflexive way it is prayer.
The next few weeks we will shift gears and speak about money and finances and how you respond to this aspect of your life. It is a spiritual issue since God has placed in your hands many things, everything, and they don’t belong totally to you. They belong to God and you are stewards or managers of these possessions for a certain amount of time. You may say, hey, I earned it. True enough, but God gave you the ability to do that and it is his gift to you. It comes from him and goes back to him.
Proof of this is that there was a time when you did not have anything and there will be a time when you no longer have anything. Eventually the money and possessions you have will go to someone else. You are God’s steward or manager for a certain number of years. How you use the money he has placed in your hands greatly affects you and your relationship with God. Either you use money and possessions to grow in love with God and others, or it will corrupt you. How you respond to this gift that God has given you greatly affects your relationship with him and others, and your spiritual health.
Let uslook at the gospel of Luke (19: 1-10) and we see that Jesus is passing through Jericho, which is only about twenty miles from Jerusalem and so he is closing in on the last days of his life. There was a man there named Zacchaeus who is not only a tax collector, but the chief tax collector, and very rich.
Zacchaeus is in a crowd and desires to see Jesus. Probably he is being ignored or even pushed around by the crowd since he is not well-regarded. And it seems that he is alone. He does something very unusual for a man of his position, and his stature: he climbs up a tree, in order to better see Jesus Christ. He is not afraid to take a risk, to make a fool of himself in order to see Jesus. He does something that perhaps you would not do. And then what happens?
Jesus sees him and says come down from the tree right away, and Jesus invites himself to his house. Zacchaeus only wanted to see him and now he is coming to his house. Jesus was a very attractive person, and so should our parish be: the building and also the people. It is important for all of us to make ‘our church’ an attractive, welcoming place.
Jesus has a meal with Zacchaeus, the crowd murmurs and Zacchaeus announces that he will give away half of what he owns to the poor and repays four fold what he has taken from others. His conversation with Jesus leads to this huge conversion! Today salvation has come to his house, the gospel says. God wants all of us to be saved and not to be a slave of money and possessions. Conversing with Jesus helps us to change.
Maybe you took some money from your parents, or there is a bill you haven’t paid and have no intention of paying, or you work less hours than you actually log in. Maybe all you money is spent on yourself. If so, or something like this it is a good time to change, and make restitution; to give back in some way the money or the time you took.
Speak to God this week about your finances, your challenges in this area, and speak to your spouse or your parents or a friend. God always wants you to be free of material attachments. He wants you to be happy, and to have a heart that loves only him, and not things.