“How Much Is Enough?”—Money

Mark 10:17–23

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.’” He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

Luke 6: 20, 24, 21, 25

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.”

Luke 16:17–31

There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented, Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’

Music Meditations

• Open My Eyes, Lord—Jesse Manibusan
• My Wealth Is Not in What I Own—Fernando Ortega
• Give Me Jesus—Vince Gill

Opening Prayer

Dear Lord, I know you do not love me because of what I own or because of what I do not own. Help me to see that others love me for who I am, not for what I own. Help me to place my happiness and security not in things, but in relationships. Teach me the danger of using what I possess to control or intimidate others. Teach me to be satisfied with the good things in my life and not constantly striving for more and more—more stuff, more experiences, more admirers. Teach me how much is enough. Help me to cultivate gratitude. Save me from smugness about what I own. Open my eyes to the needs and deprivation brought about by income inequality in my own life.

Companions for the Journey

We hate talking about money. It makes us uncomfortable, irritates us or makes us downright angry. We can talk about money in an abstract sense; however, we are especially sensitive about discussing the meaning that money personally holds in our lives. But make no mistake, we all have feelings and attitudes about money. We often go through life with an unconscious set of rules about how money works, and this may be based on childhood and early adulthood experiences, among other things. Our own experiences with money make up about 80% of how we think the world works. So any discussion of money hits at our deepest held values, prejudices, and insecurities. First of all, most of us recoil at the notion that we are privileged in any way because, well, we just aren’t. Some go so far as to say that privilege does not exist in this country. If we do agree that some are privileged more than others, we tend to downplay the difference unless we find ourselves on the wrong side of the divide. We might feel guilty, which is unpleasant, or feel like the victims of “virtue shamers” which can make us very defensive or angry. So money is a sensitive topic.

To be realistic, let us admit money in and of itself is not inherently evil; it is necessary for sustaining life. It gives us a measure of control and agency. It can give us peace of mind. It can sometimes make life a lot more comfortable or convenient. It can solve a certain number of problems. It gives us power. It can command respect. Let us also admit that poverty is not something to be desired. Ask one of the one in four children with food insecurity in this country, or the many elderly who cannot afford their medicines, or those who have lost family members because they could not afford medical care. While we are encouraged to identify with the poor, this is hard to impossible to do if one is not actually poor. We are also told to care for those in need . However, most of us are not asked, St Francis of Assisi notwithstanding, to actually become poor, because being poor is morally superior. We might choose a way of life, a profession or a vocation that renders us less economically stable than the norm, but the economic instability is not the goal, the calling is. However, money, in and of itself, can be problematic when it becomes the main measure of our happiness and when we lure ourselves into thinking it comes without a cost. The relentless pursuit of more and more can, and inevitably, will, cause dislocation in other parts of our lives.

What am I willing to risk in order get more: Family time? Good reputation/ Honesty and integrity? Happiness? Freedom? My soul? I just hate those questions…..

That having been said, the issue of lack of money, the importance of having enough money, and a culture which tells us that affluence is the reward of good people who work hard—all lie at the heart of a lot of what we think about. Television is full of ads instructing us how to invest our money and with whom, in order to accumulate more and more to live better and better. There are some personal and societal reasons why we are engaged in this quest for more and more. Here a few:

Personal unhappiness or insecurity that tells me I need money and what it can buy to insulate me from my negative feelings. When we are unhappy, we first look for something outside of ourselves to change and/or for something to distract us from what we are feeling. This can include “retail therapy”, dinners out, trips to escape, to ‘get away from it all”. And for a while, it works. We can spend our way, short term, out of a lot of irritation and discomfort. But what we know in our hearts is that this is a short term fix. Sooner or later escapism fueled by spending stops working and we are back where we started. In addition, personal insecurity and the need to be admired or envied can play a role in this quest for more. One of the great vehicles for promoting the idea that money can make us happy is the media, which spends a lot of time dangling before our eyes items that we can never afford, but indicating that they will make us happy, or special. Worse, the fact that we can never have kitchen like this, or a vacation like that can fuel great dissatisfaction with where we are in life. What is the negative side of all of this? As Nancy Bloomer, an Episcopal priest and writer puts it: the dark side of individual freedom and industry is a “me and mine” attitude in which a person’s right to pursue “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ become an excuse to take more money than they need or deserve. In a society that tolerates and even promotes the doctrine of ’more’—more spending, more profits, more producing, more consuming of the world’s resources—an ever growing gap between those who have and those who don’t have has developed, to the detriment of all. (Living Pulpit vol. 12, no 2. Wealth).

Unbridled capitalism is an all-too-common distortion of our economic system which encourages spending and spending, and fuels profits (and inflation). It tends to reduce human beings to faceless, profit-creating consumers or hapless workers in the cog of a great profit-making machine. This increases the divide between rich and poor, between the “makers” and the “takers”. It is a lot easier to increase one’s wealth when one already has some, than it is to start from scratch. What are some of costs of capitalism? Unions fighting on behalf of the worker are having to fight harder against big money and big opposition to retain their membership or to unionize new sites. The profit motive has cost whole communities their health and safety because of attempts to circumvent safety regulations. (I am thinking of the explosion in San Bruno, Gas leaks, fires caused by faulty wiring and construction, toxic waste clean-up being delayed or ignored, and contamination of water in Flint, Michigan, for starters). The fact that industrialization is exhausting natural resources and polluting the world is exemplified by the destruction of the Amazon and by catastrophic climate change that is rearranging where people can exist and grow food. These costs of growth now equal the gains, In dividual pursuit of wealth no longer increases the wealth of the community as a whole. Typically, it concentrates wealth in a few hands while imposing costs on the whole society (New Reasons for Condemning Greed, by John B Cobb in Living Pulpit vo12, no 2., Wealth)

The spirit of competition, which tells me I can only be successful or happy if someone else is less so. It encompasses an attitude about life that tells me I will never be happy until I have more, more. This zero-sum mentality can lead to all sorts of immoral and even criminal behavior, and is so common that we speak of sibling rivalry, (“mom always liked you best”) as amusing or normal) Some feel that we are hard wired by our Darwinian tendencies to be innately competitive (Remember the Disciples arguing with each other about who is most important, or the mother of two disciples agitating for her sons’ special place in Jesus “Kingdom”). This spirit of competition is fueled by the myth of upward mobility which encourages social and physical segregation based on economics. We know that the best schools, often the best houses, the nicest weather and the towns with the best health outcomes are in our wealthiest areas. This is not just an American problem; historically, it seems to be a societal problem writ large. We tend to be most vulnerable to this temptation when we surround ourselves, professionally or socially, with those who only value wealth, and measure one another’s worth by what one has. There is a paradox here: people tend to want wealth the signal to others that they should be liked and admired. But in reality, people often bypass admiring you, not because they don’t think wealth is admirable, but because they use your wealth as a benchmark for their own desire to be loved and admired ( Psychology of Money, p.93)

For a critical element of our society, including the wealthiest and most powerful among us, there seems to be no limit today on what enough entails. The hardest financial skill is getting the goal post to stop moving.

At a Party given by a billionaire on shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his widely popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yet, I have something he will never have….enough”.. (Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money, p37)

Money is a moral issue. The disparity between the haves and the have-nots is growing wider, while a larger and larger percentage of wealth is being concentrated in the hands of a very few. The middle class is shrinking and more and more people are part of what we call ‘the working poor”. Right here on El Camino in Palo Alto, people are living in cars or RVs because they cannot afford apartments here. Meanwhile, in town after town in our Bay Area suburbs, citizens are railing against of affordable housing. When we are comfortable, when life is going on as it always has, when our work rewards us and our investments guarantee our safety net in old age, we do not like dwelling on these issues. We deplore a situation where people are homeless and 1 in 4 children is food insecure, but we do not want the remedy to change how we live our lives, or to change the small town feel of our local community, with nice houses and grassy lawns, with good schools and safe streets, with lovely restaurants and well-stocked grocery stores. We do not want to be inconvenienced . More traffic?(shudder) housing density/apartments?(shudder)? More taxes ?(shudder) Most of us do not want to admit how well-off we are in the large scheme of things, and do not want to admit that we might be part of the problem.

We deplore the results of climate change. It is so hard to look at people in our own country losing everything to wildfires and floods, to drought and tornadoes, to rising sea levels and the miles of garbage polluting our oceans. South of the equator, droughts and storms caused by climate change are making it impossible for people to grow enough to feed their families. The destruction of our rain forests and other wilderness habitats as a result of industrialization and the profit motive writ large, are causing the eradication of many species of animals.

Yes, we are dismayed, distressed, depressed, even, by the pain and suffering of people, by the harm to our planet—much of which is caused by the drive for ever more profits, by ever more money for those that already have enough—but we seem to come to a dead end. Sometime we feel powerless in the face of an economic and cultural system which has worked for so long; any solutions seem impractical or beyond our reach. However, the biggest obstacle in trying to fix the mess we are in is our own resistance to being inconvenienced in any way and our resistance to changing our attitudes and habits.

Do I want to stop eating beef, stop watering my lawn, stop driving to the store every day ? Nope!

Do I want the state’s funding for schools distributed more equitably, without loopholes for parent “foundations” to enhance funding certain schools in affluent areas? Nope!

Do I want a high rise with a large proportion of “affordable housing” in my neighborhood? Nope!

What as people of God do we say about the dangers in inherent in the relentless pursuit of more and more money?

First, the spiritual consequences of the service to wealth remain destructive. Those consequences spill out over into the culture in selfishness, corruption and hardness of heart. Even a market economy requires honesty, loyalty and discipline. Sometimes, when we read what Jesus has said, or what the saints have spoken or written, we tend to read what they say as if it applies only to another time, another group of people. What does an unemployed carpenter/itinerant preacher from an economic backwater like first century Israel have to say to the products of a sophisticated, industrialized, complicated like the world that you and I live in today? As it turns out, A LOT—at least morally.

The antidote to the monetizing of our souls is a healthy spirituality of money and wealth. And, it is not easy to develop. The first step might be an honest look at ourselves and our culture and becoming more conscious of our attention to money. Someone once said: show me your checkbook and your datebook and I will show you your priorities. Jesus said: Wherever your treasure is, there is your heart”. This requires a level of introspection and level of honesty that just might make us more open to the message of scripture about the dangers of too much money. Like the rich young man, are we letting our preoccupation with our money and possessions keep us from living our lives authentically and keep us from furthering Jesus’ Kingdom?

Did Jesus really side with the poor against the rich? How did he feel about generosity (not just generosity of spirit—but actual generosity-- actually opening our purses and pockets to those who really need it? ) It was clear that Jesus himself relied on charity: Who do we think fed, clothed, shod, and housed Jesus and the apostles as they were wandering up and down the dusty roads of Israel? He tells us in Luke to give to everyone who asks, and if someone wants our cloak, we are to give him our tunic as well. In other words, we simply cannot ignore those who have less than we do. The great fault of the rich man in his exchange with Lazarus is that he simply ignored the abject misery and poverty that was right before his very house every day. We tend to do the same: how many times do we simply avert our eyes when someone is standing at the entrance to Safeway with a sign? We are too busy hanging on to what we have and sizing up who has more, that there is just no bandwidth to deal with someone who has so much less.

I wonder how Jesus would feel about the great income equality that exists now? What is meant by social justice? When we read about the landowner who gave all the laborers in the vineyard the same amount of money, no matter how long they worked, it makes us crazy. But what the landowner promised was a just wage to each… for that landowner a just wage was what it took to house and to feed a family for a day. Boy, that really flies in the face of our notion of paying someone based on his commercial worth! Instead, Jesus praises generosity to others: “Give and there will be gifts for you”—and these were not monetary gifts that were promised. That was very clear. Nor did Jesus necessarily praise those who gave more than others, but rather those who made sacrificial gifts, like the poor widow. She was the victim of scarcity, but cultivated an attitude of abundance, which created an openness to the needs of others.

In examining my own relationship with money I need to ask: Do I come from a mentality of scarcity that has me worried about running out of money? Do I feel insecure about other things which feeds my tendency to hang on to what I own? Do I equate money and happiness? Can I cultivate a spirit of abundance and gratitude? How much is enough?

“Getting and spending, we lay waste our lives” William Wordsworth has written an epitaph for our culture.

Further reading:

• Market Assumptions: Pope Francis’ challenge to income inequality by Robert W. McElroy in America magazine >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from Mark 10:17–23…

How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of Heaven

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

In your daily life do you think of wealth or talent as a blessing from God? How has your wealth or talent been a blessing in your life? How has it been a distraction from your relationship to God? How do I define “rich”? Can you list the ten things that you are most grateful for in your in life? Is the way you live your life consistent with what you say value the most? From Grace Baptist church: In Mark 10:18 Jesus declares that God is good. How does trusting God’s goodness allow you to personally “keep yourself free from the love of money”? Have you made your money an idol? Can you answer ‘yes’ to these questions? -Do you pray for more money? -Do you fantasize about spending money? -Do you use spending or stuff to make you feel better (retail therapy)? -Do you compare your possessions to others? -Do you struggle to share or give? How does our consumer culture make it hard to say we have enough? What, from my life experiences, has shaped how I view money? What, from the milieu I inhabit, shapes my views on money? How does my family/society treat those who choose to turn their backs on wealth and success in order to, say, work with the poor or disenfranchised? Would your loved ones be happy or dismayed if you made such a choice? Or: Would I be happy if my child made such a choice? Do I view the accumulation of money as a symbol of my talent and hard work? Do I view the accumulation of money as necessary in the culture we live in? Do I view the accumulation of money as a hedge against misfortune or inconvenience? Why do you think Jesus seems to find wealth a problem? In the light of the gospels, what do I do with my money? How does money fit in with my identity as a Catholic? As a disciple of Jesus? How does money define my spirituality? How do we determine how much money is enough for us? Do we feel we don’t have enough as long as someone else has more? How do we determine how much money is enough for another? How much money is too much?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

The Kingdom of God (or the Kingdom of Heaven) is, according to theologians, not Heaven. The Kingdom is a situation, a set of relationships where truth and integrity, love and compassion and justice and the sharing of goods prevail… (Living Space) The Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus’ vision of a world in which people care for one another, where there is no war, no poverty, no one disadvantaged by “the system”. What, to me, is The Kingdom of God, and what would it look like? How feasible is it to bring about this Kingdom? Do we have to do more than just trying to stay out of sin? Are we called to seek and find Jesus and help sustain the Kingdom? How can excess wealth get in the way of our finding Jesus? How can wealth be a distraction?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

The following meditation in the Ignatian style, is called Prayer of Consideration, and it invites the reader/listener to enter into the scene of the scripture story, becoming, in one’s imagination, part of the event. We use insights gained from this type of meditation to look at our own lives and respond in love to God’s salvific action.

Read Mark 10:18-22 (the man of great wealth). Imagine that you are the man who has approached Jesus with a question: “What must I do earn eternal life?” Are you sincere? Imagine Jesus’ response to you (keep the commandments). Then look around you and see all the disciples watching this exchange. How do you feel? Can you honestly say that you could answer as the man did? Then Jesus invites you to sell all you have, give the proceeds to the poor and become one of his followers. Why do you respond the way you do? What attachment (is it money or is it something else?) might be hindering you from becoming a follower of Jesus?

A Meditation in the Franciscan style--Action:

Luke 16: 19-31 Why did the rich man go to hell? We are not told that he acquired his wealth by foul means. We are not told that he personally, is responsible for the poverty an d misery of Lazarus. In fact, we are not even told that Lazarus begged from him directly and was refused. We are not told that the rich man committed any crime or bad deed. All we are told is that he feasted and dressed in fine clothing. Should he go to hell for that? We he did sin…He committed a sin most of us don’t even think about. It is the sin of omission. The rich man chose not to see Lazarus at his doorstep. He just did not see him. He was spiritually blind, spiritually unaware. This parable challenges you and me to look around and see, and to act on what we see .It prompts us to turn down the noise, pause from the rat race, put aside our own preoccupations—and notice Lazarus at the door. And to do something. Here are some practical suggestions: 1. Reflect. What does where you spend money say about your priorities? 2. Tithe. Give a fixed percentage of your income to your church and to the poor. 3. Create a "charity bin" in your home. Every time you go shopping, buy something(non-perishable) to drop in the bin. When it is full, take it to the nearest church or soup kitchen that has the resources to distribute it to the poor. 4. Show by example, and teach your children that no matter how little they have, some of that belongs to others. Take them to someplace where they can see how privileged they are to have a home and food and schooling….. 5. Adopt a family charity 6. Have family talks about limiting consumption of luxuries Inspired by a homily for 28 Sunday B in The Word In and Out of Season by W. Bausch

Literary Reflection:

What does Wendell Berry, according to this poem, say is the best way to enter the Kingdom of God?

“Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”

Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. Give your approval to all you cannot understand. Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed. Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years. Listen to the carrion--put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come. Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men. Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child? Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth? Go with your love to the fields. Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in her lap. Swear allegiance to what is nighest in your thoughts. As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.

from Collected Poems

Literary Reflection:

Concern for the obsession with money is not a new phenomenon. Read what William Wordsworth had to say in 1802, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution:

“The World is Too Much with Us”

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Closing Prayer

Adapted from Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus, we offer to you in prayer all that we are and al that we have. We ask for help in using wisely all that we possess, and living easily with what we might like to possess but cannot. Bless those that have so little and open our eyes to what we might to help. Us. Give us the spirit of generosity. And finally give us gratitude for what we have, because what we have is enough.