8th Sunday in Ordinary Time / A 27/02/2011
Matthew 6, 24-34 (p. 907)
In our reading of the Sermon on the Mount liturgy we blew an entire portion devoted to charity, the prayer and fasting to achieve education for this Sunday. In this teaching the Lord Jesus addresses two main themes that bind to one another: the god Money and abandonment to the providence of God.
"You can not serve both God and Money." Translating liturgical wrote the word "money" with a capital to try to translate the Aramaic word Mammon. The Bible offers Peoples translation has the merit of being clear: God Money. Because that is what it is in our passage from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. Here the rival of God, his rival, not Satan, but the god Money. And this idol reign at two levels. Globally and in the lives of people. At the global level is evident. It's been a long time that the interests and economic benefits and the financial world running the show against a weakened or lacking political will. Under these conditions, the moral is thrown in the closet. The cult of the god Silver excludes any moral reflection. And yet a human vision the economy is consistent with legal requirements as stated in the passage of the Social Doctrine of the Church: "The relationship between morality and economics is necessary and intrinsic. The moral dimension of the economy captures such purposes inseparable, not separate or alternative economic efficiency and promoting common development of mankind. " The Lord's warning also affects our personal lives. If we let ourselves be ruled by the god Money, we become slaves and lose our freedom at the same time as children of God.
The result of our gospel we ask more questions: "Do not be so concerned for your life, about food or about your body, about clothes." We understand the cutting edge of this teaching: Jesus wants us to live truly the son of God, that is to say that we do trust him and we handed him our whole life, our whole person. Jesus wants us to have faith in the providence of God our Father for us. Argument as we contemplate nature. And the more deeply he says that life is worth more than food and the body more than clothing. In short, the supreme value on earth is man himself, above all material possessions, above objects and of course money that can make us slaves. Man alone is indeed the image of God, and this gives it a special dignity. We can receive this teaching of Christ without problems if we have enough to live, if just the next day because we do not worry. But how to hear this word to our brothers around the world live in poverty, or to the 6 million French who must settle for a salary of 750 euros for a living? We might get the impression listening to this gospel that Jesus leads us to the recklessness and irresponsibility, as if everything was falling from the sky as at the time of the manna and quails in the desert ... Certainly the history of saints, like St. John Bosco, for example, shows us how divine Providence has responded to situations of extreme distress. But let's face it, this does not seem to be the standard track, and the manna and quails have stopped falling from the sky when the people arrived in Palestine. A Swiss priest, Maurice Zundel, great spiritual death in 1975, has given much thought to the relationship between poverty and spiritual freedom. Let me quote at some length: "Hunger in humans does not only endanger its existence Physically it requires him to reduce it. It is no longer a body at bay, pursued by an animal's needs. It is therefore incapable of creating value, inner self, because of which he recognizes dignity. It is practically frustrated, unable to make itself a good, a universal and infinite in the outbreak which all are interested. It is properly disposed of at home, in the practical impossibility of achieving his humanity, to promote, as Flaubert would have said-something to someone, that results in abortion tragedy of a world whose irreplaceable alone could be the author. HUNGER, in a word, forbids him from being an end. " This reflection of Zundel on the dramatic consequences of poverty from a meeting he did during his priestly ministry with a woman. She had said: "I would meditate and pray, but how can I fix my mind on a thought that illuminates when I have five children to feed and nothing in my pots. The hunger of my children breaks my bowels and kill all life in me the spirit. " Zundel and commented: "What she claimed? Simply a space Security that would allow him to make his life a place of generosity. "To live the word of wisdom from Jesus" Every Day's Work ", we all need the security space. Be freed from the tyranny of day that keeps us from living fully our present, this assumes that we are in a situation quite different from that of this poor mother. Does Jesus rebuke of worry for her children and for the next day? I'm not sure. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things shall be yours for the bargain." The Gospel shows us that this kingdom is not easily accessible to the rich. Our experience also shows that poverty different from poverty, is often an obstacle to spiritual life. Yes, we must always seek the essential in our lives, for where our heart is, there also is our treasure. Yes, we must be vigilant against the pernicious power of God Silver and never give up the moral demands for profit and enrichment. Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, is it not also become welfare for our brothers who are in need? How God's Providence does it work if it is through us and through us who are his son and members of his church? So if we have this chance not to miss anything, if we have this area of security, we are generous space? Not just for our family and friends, but especially for the poor of our world. I'm not sure that Jesus would blame this poor woman who was worried for her children. But I am certain that we blame our selfishness, our greed and our greed, if not missing anything, we do not have the opportunity to become the faces of his providence in this world.
