A Reflection for Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
I used to struggle pretty regularly with comparing myself to others, including in matters such as grades in school or achievements at work. When I admitted this to a Jesuit friend, he counseled me by offering a quippy saying: compare and despair. And it’s true. Yes, there were people who struggled more than I did in school, but I was fixated on those who performed better. I have won awards for my writing, but I didn’t receive as many or ones with the same prestige as some of my colleagues. Comparing usually led to despairing. So I’ve tried to stop, with varying levels of success.
Sometimes, I’ve learned, this inclination toward comparison has made myself feel not worse, but better.
Take today’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus warns against greed and extravagant wealth. Gospel stories related to money include some of the toughest words of Jesus, who seems to hold in contempt the very wealthy. As someone whose lifestyle is comfortable but not extravagant, it’s easy to think that these parables don’t apply to me. After all, I certainly won’t find myself on a Forbes 400 list anytime soon.
Of course, perspective is everything.
Compared to some of my neighbors who struggle to put food on the table, I probably seem rich. To people living in much less affluent parts of the world, I probably seem obscenely wealthy. It’s true, the Elon Musks of the world live with a kind of wealth I’ll never know. But having a home, plenty to eat, access to medical care and the ability to take a vacation or buy new clothes now and then isn’t any less obscene to the billions of people who lack such things.
So what are people who more or less have what they need, and maybe a little more, to do with today’s reading?
For me, Jesus’s reminder to the crowd to “take care to guard against all greed” prompts me to pause for a moment not only to reflect on how we use my own resources, but also to consider how greed affects my life and my faith. Am I focused on the things that Jesus tells us are important in our lives—caring for others, relationships with my family and neighbors, connecting with the divine? Or have I allowed myself to be sucked into a culture of consumerism, indulging my temptations toward greed?
