Confess the 'money' sins!

Homily
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
18/19 September 2010
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

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The title of this homily is that we have to do better at confessing the money sins. Now I know you're all thinking - what are the money sins? Being judgmental? Unchastity? Envy? But as a confessor, I can assure you I hear these sins confessed all the time. By confessing the money sins, I mean literally 'money' sins. Almost no one confesses their greed. Almost no one confesses their lack of prudence in the use of money. Jesus tells us it is a most dangerous sin indeed. We cannot serve both God and mammom. Both God and our greed. We should make this a more regular part of our confession - what we have done with our money. For Jesus reminds us that where our treasure is, there also will our heart be.

Most of us do not confess the money sins because we think that is the problem of rich people, not us. Well, notwithstanding the fact that if you live in America, no matter how broke you are you still enjoy more security than 95% of the world, the reality is that both the rich and the less rich are addicted to money. Want me to prove it? How hard would it be for you to give a full 10% of your income away? Statistics prove that Americans are some of the most generous people on earth, but that most Americans still give away less than 3% of their income, and the more money you have, the smaller percentage you usually give. What is more, Catholics give way less than Protestants. The Biblical tithe of 10% is the minimum one must give away if one hopes to have any chance of owning his possessions, rather than having his possessions own him. 10% is the minimum, not the maximum, if we are to have any hope whatsoever in trusting in God and not in money, and yet almost no one meets this standard. By the Biblical definition, our possessions own us. They own all of us. Everyone in this chapel tonight. And yet we rarely confess this sin. It should be near the top of the list, always, or Satan is having his way with us. Jesus helps us to form our conscience today. We think it is the sin of the rich who have more than we do, but greed infects almost everyone, and it is the poor, yes even university students, who should be leading the way in giving away what they have, in imitation of the widow who gave her last 2 pennies into the temple treasury.

We give away our possessions because the hallmark virtue of a Christian is charity. Even if there were no injustice in the world, and even if the Church already had all the money She needed to accomplish her mission, Christians would still be obliged to give away 10% or more. We give not according to the relative value we place on the neediness of others. We give because of our need to give. We give because of our need to be free of our possessions, and because of our need to practice the virtue of prudence. While there may truly be a few situations where it is prudent not to give money away, in order to improve our own financial situation, it is instead almost always true that the person who gives more away, grows greatly in the virtue of prudence, and so ends up with more resources because he stops wasting resources. So the more you give away, the more you have. This rule is almost always true. It is not a get rich quick scheme. It is not prosperity theology, that the more you give the more you get. But it is a way of trusting God, that He will not be outdone in generosity, and a true desire to grow in the virtue of prudence, and to find ways to do more with less.

Such great examples are the religious brothers and sisters around us who make vows of poverty, who trust in divine providence and who show us how to be free of our possessions. As a priest, I am to live simply in a way that enables me to live reasonably among the people I serve, neither too much above them or below them. I heard a guy say once that he does not go to Church because he never met a priest who was poor, so even though I disagree with his reasons, his statement pricks my conscience enough to remind me that this homily is as important for me personally as it is for you. Every Christian should be known if not for his poverty, to which some are called for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, but at least by his simplicity, prudence, and charity. Let us pray for our consecrated brothers and sisters who show us what is possible, and who encourage us to serve God and not mammon.

I know I give this homily during a difficult financial time, when people are really struggling, where despair and anger can readily set in because of high unemployment, and because of legitimate disagreements about the state of our economy and the role of government. There is a lot of anger out there, and there must be constructive debate on these things, and we must especially look out for each other when times are tough.

Still, Jesus challenges us not to let political and economic challenges that exist outside of us to cause us to ignore the greater evils that come from within, those evils that threaten us more than taxes and unemplyment ever can. Jesus teaches us how to protect our souls and our virtue no matter what storms are raging outside. Jesus out of love for us shows us how prudent and skilled we are at securing our own self-interests, especially when it seems we will run out of money. Jesus gives as the hero of this weekend's Gospel an unlikely scoundrel indeed, a dishonest steward who while not possessing the virtue of honesty, has plenty of guile and wit and who keeps himself from starving. Jesus reminds us how quickly we stir into action, and how skillful we are, when we are threatened with running out of dishonest wealth. Every dollar we have, you and I, is tainted by original sin. As we know from the most elementary study of economic justice, many dollars are earned by the rich oppressing the poor - such is the economic system you and I live in. And yet we stir into action to secure this dishonest wealth for ourselves. We worry alot that we might run out. Yet we do not worry as much about our spiritual lives, about our relationship with God. We let it slide. We put it off until later. We lose our sense of urgency. If you ever want to find out how much more important money is for you than your spiritual life, the Church recommends that we give alms as a sure remedy against sin. That's right, try fining yourself severely for a sin that you commit. Give $50 to charity every time you commit a certain sin. See how hard it is to make yourself give alms. See how easy it is for us to love our money more than we hate our sin. See how easy it is for us to rationalize that we can live with the sin, whereas we cannot live without our money. Jesus tells us to be as prudent and as concerned in the battle to become the persons we know we can be, as we are in protecting our wealth. For we cannot serve both God and mammon.