A Reflection for Saturday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
You can find today’s reading here.
I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances;
I know also how to live with abundance.
In every circumstance and in all things
I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of living in abundance and of being in need. (Phil 4:12)
Today’s readings address need and want, abundance and scarcity. When we talk about need—both physical and spiritual—we are sometimes hiding in that dialogue a little angst about want and maybe something even more shameful like envy. It may take some spiritual trawling to uncover something that can nullify both—gratitude.
“No servant can serve two masters,” Jesus reminds us in today’s Gospel. “He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Paul is not reluctant to accept a sharing-of-the-wealth that allows his ministry to continue, but he remains properly mindful of his true master. His letter to the Philippians includes a “thank you” card offered because of their support for the new church. But it comes with a small reflection to remind them that after the acceptance of the riches offered by Christ everything else in life is surplus, an overflow of abundance.
Paul is not merely grateful for the assistance but glad for the rewards it accrues to the givers—and sorry, prosperity-ites, he is indeed talking of a heavenly, not an earthly reward—full hearts, not fuller wallets.
While this Scripture passage has been twisted by contemporary prosperity-gospel hucksters—“If you buy my prayer scarf, the Lord will reward you with earthly riches”—the message is really about understanding and embracing a spiritual abundance that allows us to be at peace with our inevitable material limits.
Paul knows he already has all he needs through Christ, and he wants his correspondents to feel the same. Embracing such spiritual fullness liberates us to even greater material generosity but also from the wanting that can lead to envy—a deadly sin that poisons our minds with fretful contemplation of how much others have compared to our humble lot.
And Paul is not merely grateful for the assistance but glad for the rewards it accrues to the givers—and sorry, prosperity-ites, he is indeed talking of a heavenly, not an earthly reward—full hearts, not fuller wallets. ”My God will fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus,” he tells the Philippians.
We have all we need through every spiritual gift of Scripture and faith. The abundance that remains we are free, in proper gratitude, to joyfully share.
