Eight Sunday-A

Eight Sunday-A 

Last week I visited a family and as the wife said that her husband is going to be forty-five soon, I said, "Did he have his mid-life crisis yet?' And she said, "My husband has mid-life crisis every day". 

One day as a mother and her son were coming home from Sunday Mass, the mom looked at a beautiful double rainbow in the sky and said, "Son, God painted this just for you. Look how beautiful it is". The boy looked at his mom and said, "Thanks mom and God did it left handed". The mom was kind of confused and said, "why do you say God painted it with left hand?" The son said, "Because at Sunday school they said that Jesus sits on God's right hand". 

Does anyone has any change?...wow...he is rich and I haven't seen a hundred dollar bill for long time.  

Money is not evil.  It's a blessing. We see in the Old Testament how God blessed all His servants, believers and followers with wealth. The book of Job begins like this. Once there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants. He was highly blessed by God. Those who fear God will be greatly blessed by wealth. 

Being rich and having money is a blessing. Once a man said, "I have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life, if I die next Tuesday". Someone said, "The only exercise I have done this month is running out of money". So many things are said about money. 

Last week a friend of mine said, "The best way to make money at the casino is just staying home".  Money in itself is not an evil thing but the people who love money are evil. 

 Money is not our Master but servant. And that is why at the temptation of Christ we see when the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said to Christ, "I will give you all these, if you will fall down and worship me". 

What did Jesus say? He said, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, "Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him".  That is why Christ our Lord said to the man who said to himself after a big produce, "I am going to pull down my small storage and build a bigger one and where I will store all my produce and now I have ample goods, a lot of things to enjoy. So my soul, be happy and enjoy life and Christ said, "You fool. This very night your life is demanded of you and then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" What is the point of gaining the whole world and forfeiting our soul? 

And that is why in today's Gospel passage, Christ who showed us the way to the Father says, "No one can serve two masters. We can not serve both God and wealth". 

We are called to serve God and make money serve us.  

There is a story about a woman who was struggling with a decision as to whether or not to have cosmetic surgery. She was thinking about having a facelift. But it was very expensive. Hence, she was totally confused. She said to her husband, "The surgery is so expensive and what if I drop dead three months after I have this surgery? Then what would you do? The husband thought for a moment and said, "Well, I guess we would have an open casket for your funeral". 

Created things will never satisfy a person. The longing in Him will never go away. The black hole in his heart will remain forever unless a person serves the Master, the Creator. 

As we serve God using our money and other means, we will know how to deal with our worries, anxieties and pain and suffering. Every living or non-living thing will help us to stay stronger.  

Jesus asks us to look at the lilies of the field who neither toil or spin and yet heavenly father keep them beautiful.  

When we serve God using our money and other means, we will know how to deal with our worries, anxieties, pain and suffering. Every living and non-living thing will help us stay stronger. 

Jesus asks us to look at the birds. They neither sow nor reap and yet 

 the heavenly Father feeds them. So He who loves us all with His unconditional love will look after us. All we have to do is surrender ourselves to Him and serve Him.  

So let us not worry about tomorrow but live today serving Him who loves us. Amen.