Balance

Our neighborhood has been through a lot since our gathering last Sunday.

A traumatic experience that has become all too common around our country.

We feel deep sympathy for the victims and especially their families.

And we pray for them.

And we pray that some solution can be found to avoid future incidents like this.

We’re reminded that evil and suffering and brokenness are facts of life in this world.

We’re reminded that, ultimately, death is a fact of life in this world.

We’re forced to face the fragility of our own lives and the lives of our loved ones.

But we’re comforted by our faith and trust.

By knowing that new life awaits us.

That the joys of heaven are so great that it’s beyond our ability to even imagine.

That God sent his Son to save the world and does not will that even one of us be lost.

The greater our trust, the greater our comfort.

Every day we see death at work in the world.

With that constant reminder, why is it so hard for us to get our priorities straight?

Why do we throw ourselves so completely into the things of this world?

Why do we ignore the repeated warnings from Scripture?

Don’t store up earthly treasures, store up treasures in heaven.

You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you. 

Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor.

It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.

And as we heard today, You can’t serve both God and Mammon.

Yet, we devote so much of our time and attention to money, wealth and material things.

Thinking or worrying about money—planning our financial future.

How can I get more money?

How’s the market doing?

Have I stored up enough savings for emergencies or for retirement?

We all need money.

That’s another fact of life.

And we spend much of our lives working to earn it.

Providing for our own welfare and our family’s welfare is the right thing to do.

It’s responsible, it’s prudent, it’s good.

Most of us recognize that money is just a medium of exchange.

We don’t want the money for itself.

We want the money for what we can buy with it and do with it.

Food, clothing and shelter.

Health care and Transportation.

Tuition and Entertainment.

Travel and Savings.

Luxuries and Gifts, including Charitable gifts.

Long term security—we hope.

It can be difficult to plan for our needs and our reasonable, modest desires.

It’s hard to decide when enough is enough.

But we can’t let ourselves get too engrossed in those material, worldly concerns.

We run the risk of falling under the spell of Mammon, serving Mammom.

Putting our trust in material wealth rather than in God.

How much do we need to worry about our worldly wealth?

A recent study from the University of California looked at U.S. household income.

It found that the top 1% of families received 23% of the nation’s income.

And the top 10% of families received 51% of the nation’s income.

That leaves just 49% of the nation’s total income to be shared by 90% of the families.

We’ve heard a lot about the top 1% lately.

With all the controversy over Wall Street and pay for Corporate CEO’s.

There have been a lot of accusations of greed and unfair distribution of wealth.

There’s been a lot of concern that America is becoming ever more divided.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

The top 100^th of 1%—just 16,000 households—takes 5% of all U.S. income.

Each of those households takes in over $10 Million per year.

That’s a pretty elite group.

But what income level do you think you need to rank in the top 1% ?

A total household income of $394,000.

We may well have a few of those 1%ers in our midst right now.

And how about that top 10% ?  —  $114,000 household income.

I won’t ask you to raise your hands, but I bet we have a number of 10%ers here.

A household income of $50,000 puts you in the top half of all U.S. households.

The top half of households in one of the wealthiest nations in the world.

Of course, things are expensive here in Washington.

We need a little more to get by than folks in lower cost of living areas.

Some of us really don’t have what we need.

Many more of us worry that we don’t have what we need.

But all-in-all, we’re a pretty wealthy bunch.

A very blessed bunch.

So, let’s heed the warning of today’s Gospel.

Let’s get our priorities straight.

Let’s learn from the tragedy at the Navy Yard.

Our lives in this world are short.

We don’t know when they’re going to end.

But we do know that there’s a gloriously joyful life after this one.

Most of us have enough material wealth to get by in this life.

We don’t need to spend so much time planning and worrying about material things.

We need to maintain the proper balance between our material and spiritual lives.

Let’s plan and worry more about entering into that next life.

Let’s make sure we’re storing up treasures in heaven.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lk 16:1-13           Read this Scripture @usccb.org