The Love of Money
by
the Reverend Noel E. Bordador
Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ “‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Luke 16:1-13
At the very core of our human nature exist our need to love with great passion, and our need to be loved unconditionally. Our happiness it seems depends on having these needs met. And so, we go on longing, hungering, thirsting and searching for the source of this happiness, the object of love that will satisfy this need. Mystics have long since claimed that this innate drive to to search ultimately is a gift from God. God has inflicted upon us a certain “divine discontent” as Augustine puts it, making our hearts “inquietum”, restless, a restless refusal to be tamed, comforted and satisfied by no thing or no other object of love except God himself. In this way, our restless human longing, our unfulfilled desires, are themselves, I dare say, sacramental, because they can lead us, can take us back to God.
But there is also a danger in our desires since our longings awaken us to the deep void and emptiness in us, waiting to be filled, making us all feel vulnerable, and insecure. Our desires remind us of a vast separation between us and God. In the words of a contemporary Sufi, our desires bring us “sorrow” of our “eviction from the paradise of oneness” with God.1 And so, what we do is often run away from this “sorrow” and instead we fill our loneliness with things other than God. And one of the things we fill that void with is money, the very subject of the readings for this Sunday.
Let me begin by saying that Jesus nowhere condemns money (in and of itself) as evil; he never says that money is the root of evil. In the Gospels, Jesus and his close disciples seemed to carry lots of cash that they used at least for two purposes: to provide basic necessities for themselves (to take care of themselves) and to give alms to the poor (to take care of the others). What Jesus warns against is the love of money, and the root of that evil is not money, but the heart. The heart deceives the human person in believing that true happiness and fulfillment is found in hoarding wealth and possessions. The heart deceives itself that money is the source of its security, and so involves itself in a lifelong project of acquisition of money to cover up its insecurity. Two things happen. First, the love of money evicts God out of the heart, for Jesus warns: “No slave can serve two masters…One cannot serve God and wealth.” Secondly, since in our drive to acquire more and more can lead us to compete against others. Many things could happen as the prophet Amos points out: we can cheat others of their money. Or like the dishonest steward in the Gospel reading, love of money makes us exploit others. We become involve in dishonesty, in injustice and oppression of others for the love of money.
It is for this reason that Jesus warns us to guard our hearts from the love of money, or for that matter, any excessive love of any thing that is not God. How do we guard the heart? A NT scholar on Luke’s Gospel, Susan Garrett,2 says that to deal with the temptations posed by this world, Luke advocates three spiritual disciplines, and I want to relate this to the temptation of money. The first discipline is prayer. If God alone can fulfill the deepest desire of the heart, then we must have an unceasing connection with God, and prayer is that foremost connection. Otherwise, a lack of connection leaves the heart open to be occupied by things other than God. The second discipline is wakefulness or watchfulness. We need money for food, shelter, education or healthcare. So each one of us is entitled to have money for this very reason. But it is not enough for us to earn and use money. We must become aware of how we earn and use it. Do I earn my money honestly, or do I earn my money off the backs of the people and the vulnerable in our society? Am I employed in a job that benefits people and the larger community, or am I in a job that is harmful to people, to my community or that poisons the environment? Are my investments not only fiscally sound but also morally sound? Do I invest in companies that have a good record in promoting economic equity and peace, or does my investment portfolio contain investments in companies that destroy local economies or engage in the creation of instruments of war, of weapons of mass destruction? Do I use my money solely for my own advantage or do I also share it with the Church or causes of justice? How do I hold accountable the civil authorities of my community and nation so that all in society benefits from collective wealth? My point here is that my, our individual right to have money must be counterbalanced by the rights of others in the larger community, and the protection of our environment. The third discipline is self-denial. For Luke, self-denial means the refusal to rely on things of this world for security; and in Luke this self-denial includes the refusal to hoard possessions and money for one’s own gain alone. Instead, the Christian is exhorted that after taking care of one’s necessities, one must share one’s possessions and money to others who are in need. Self-denial might also include denying ourselves a job or position produces income that results from injustice done to others. And whatever ill-gotten wealth we have earned, Luke says today that we must redeem this evil by giving it up to the victims of our injustice. This is actually the point of the parable today. The steward in the parable earned his living by charging very high interests on loans his master made to others and this usury was against the commandment of God. But by erasing the interest, the steward repented himself of his unjust economic practices. Luke tells us that we must not only examine, but we must also reverse any economic practices that are unjust as a sign of our repentance, conversion, and newness of life in Christ.
We can only have one Master; we are made for God and not for wealth, Luke says. Do exchange God the priceless imperishable treasure of your heart for the treasure that perishes and never satisfies the hungry heart. The Muslim Sufi mystic Jallaludin Rumi had this to say:
Remember the deep root of your being, the presence of your [L]ord. Give your life
to the [O]ne who already owns your breath. You are more valuable than both heaven
and earth. What else can I say? You don’t know your own worth. Do not sell yourself
at a ridiculous price, you who are so valuable in God’s eyes.3
© 2024 Noel E. Bordador
Noel Bordador is a queer Episcopal priest in the Philippines. He runs Nazareth House, a Catholic Worker House of Hospitality for persons with HIV/AIDS in Manila.
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