September 23, 2001

Are wealth and piety really so incompatible? Have we not met kind, generous, and at the same time wealthy Christians? Have we not met criminals brutalized by poverty?

Are wealth and piety really so incompatible? Have we not met kind, generous, and at the same time wealthy Christians? Have we not met criminals brutalized by poverty? The key words here are probably serve, love, and be devoted. What rules in our heart? What or whom do we serve? Wealth, what wealth do we have anyway, or money in general: is it our goal or a means? If it is the goal, then we need treatment for kleptomania, not the thought that everything is fine with us. If it is a means, then a means for what? Money brings new possibilities into our life, and not all of them are useful for our soul. We can direct this money toward acquiring power over other people, the most terrible drug is power, toward various forms of self-indulgence, food, sex, comfort, travel, and so on, toward soothing our conscience, alms and charity, in one way or another toward ourselves. How money can become for us a way of serving God, and not at the same time become self-justification, is probably the question each of us must resolve in our relationship with God. Two cannot sit on the throne at once...