God or Money- Your Choice

“You cannot serve both God and mammon.” It’s probably not inflammatory to say that most Christians have no idea what “mammon” means. It isn’t used in ordinary conversations, most likely because it is an ancient word St. Luke uses in today’s Gospel. The word refers to wealth and material goods and is commonly associated with greed.

Once we understand what mammon means, it is easy to translate the sentence into contemporary terms: You cannot serve both God and money. This is a simple message within a complex dynamic. St. Luke defines what it means by his preceding sentences. “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.”   

Some, although few, are wholly engaged with money and wealth to the point that it becomes their master. Most people do not fall into this category, but the message is also directed to us. No matter the level of spiritual development, the reality of modern life demands a duplicity between religion and commerce that we engage in to survive.

Mammon is an insidious master. When we acquire material things like toys early on, we unconsciously enter into the lifelong struggle between material wealth and spiritual growth. Toys are displaced by smartphones and automobiles, inevitably leading to bigger purchases as salaries grow. With every possession attained, the need to juggle and manage wealth increases. The more we have, the more the master demands. The things we own need to be protected and maintained. Logic dictates that the more we have, the more we want, and the more time and effort we spend to hold onto it. After all, we only have so much time; when it is used on material things, there isn’t much left over. Mammon seems like a demanding master.

The ugly beast of our rationalization pops up in response to what has just been noted. Few of us consider ourselves wealthy like the billionaires and millionaires around us. I may be lower or middle class, and the corruption of wealth shouldn’t affect me. But it does because the dynamic remains. As a matter of fact, those with less have a temptation to hold more tightly to what they have. Whether rich or poor, there is only one antidote to save us from becoming slaves to wealth and more devoted disciples to Christ.

You may recall that we reflected on Jesus’ parable of the rich man with a plentiful harvest last month. He spent his time planning how he would protect his wealth. Little did he realize that his life was demanded of him that very night. The farmer’s fatal position was to believe that all of his work was his own and that the harvest was due to his industriousness. God’s involvement in the farmer’s good fortune was never mentioned in the parable. The end of the story is sad; he dies without taking his mammon, which he so coveted, with him to his grave.

This leads us back to the antidote. As Christians, we must be convinced that all the good we possess in this life is a gift from God. That includes material wealth and intellectual and physical prowess. If we believe this to be true, and it is, then the way we live will change. We still will have to take care of the material things we have, but instead of becoming our master, they become subservient to our spiritual realities. Subserviency is never a master.  

Our lesson is simple. Fending off the master of materialism can only be accomplished by acknowledging that we are mere stewards of what has been given to us to use to bring about good. The demand for Christian charity is based upon this premise. Share the gifts we have been given with those who have less.

By constantly converting to the reality that all is a gift, we can serve God alone.  It is demeaning to serve something with no life or power to save.

 “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Josh 24:15