Seeking Divine Mercy
Now someone
approached Jesus and said, "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal
life?" He answered him, "Why
do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is
good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." He asked him, "Which ones?" And
Jesus replied, " 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you
shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother';
and 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" The young man said to him, "All of these
I have observed. What do I still lack?"
Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you
have and give to (the) poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come,
follow me." When the young man
heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen,
I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of
heaven.” ( Mt Ch 19: 16,23)
Addiction To Materialism
Addiction,
yes addiction. There
is no other word that better describes what most of us succumb to when it comes
to the so called “goals” we set for ourselves in this time of separation from
God and family in the pursuit of “happiness”. Is this to say goals are bad? Of course not. Striving to reach our goals if established in
the right mind and heart is exactly what God intended. He is the one who gifted
us with our talents when performed in good conscience. Our love and charity
toward one another should be reflected in our successes. But we need to
consider what we choose for our goals and the level of importance we place on
them. If driven by greed, they will defy us never having reached satisfaction. Can
it be just a coincidence that the more we remove God and prayer from our daily
lives, schools, public places and so on that the number one priority of the
average individual becomes him or herself above everything and everyone else
along with whatever “things” they can own or reward themselves with? For many
it is not enough to own as much or more than the next person, but to own the
most flamboyant, flashy objects clothes house and cars as one can afford or to
their limit of affordability, And for what reason? And even more importantly,
to what cost and to what or who’s sacrifice? Is it
because those things are the best in quality or durability? Or is it because of
Self pride and ego to show one’s self above others? Consider this. If it were
for the reason of quality and durability it would make sense to purchase and
keep those items for the life of the object to get the value out of it; which
means we would not have to frequently purchase or replace the same serving
objects but instead use what we have for a much longer time. How many people
with BMW automobiles keep them for four, six or eight years before replacing
them?
“Put to death, then,
the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
the greed that is idolatry. Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon
the disobedient. By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in
that way. But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and
obscene language out of your mouths. Stop lying to one another, since you have
taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which
is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not
Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave,
free; but Christ is all and in all.” (Colossians CH3; 5-11)
Lets say an individual buys a BMW automobile instead of a
Chevrolet. Do they then keep that car for its useful life? Or do they go out
and replace it in a year or two or three for another upper end automobile? Who
would be so naive as to believe the lower priced car wouldn’t serve just as
long as the BMW for the average time most would possess the upper priced car?
But it’s about “Status”, feeding pride and ego so it must be replaced more
frequently to serve its true purpose.
How much of an
income does one require and how large of a home does a person need for
comfortable living conditions before the home becomes nothing more than a shell
of a house; a status symbol for self pride and ego. How many rooms does one
need before the number is excessive where one hardly enters them let alone uses
them? How many through no fault of their own are homeless because of arrogance
and unbridled greed?
Now days so
deemed large “luxury homes” that use to be constructed on acres and acres of
ground hardly visible to their neighboring properties are being constructed on
top of each other in major subdivisions with barely enough room to walk between
them. Why? Could it be because so many people get drawn into the “status” issue
through pride and ego that they must have a “luxury home” even if it means it
barely fits on the lot it was built on?
You could say
it’s the market but then we create the market. Some will question what is so
wrong with pursuing life this way and what is wrong with being “successful”? If
you were truly Christian you would know the answer to those questions. If you
must ask these questions, you are called to seek further knowledge in Christ.
The questions should be, at what point does success become greed and then to
what cost and to what or who’s sacrifice do we attain our goals?
If you must go
beyond comfort to satisfy your pride and ego, you abandon the practices of
humility and charity toward others as Christianity proclaims. Pride is proven
over and over and over to be the foundation of all sin and those who absolutely
hate to hear the term sin distance themselves from God because His word and His
calling interferes with those goals that satisfy pride, avarice, lust, envy,
gluttony, anger, and sloth, otherwise know as “the seven capital sins”.
And why are they called this? Because they are 
“Those sins to which
man's fallen nature is mainly inclined and that are, as a result, the source of
all other human failings”. Modern Catholic Dictionary by Fr. John
A. Hardon, S.J.
A person who
wishes to see them self as they really are must step back outside of them self
and consider their priorities and the goals they have reached with the goals
they continue to pursue. Is it that every goal reached and every item purchased
turns out to be less than the satisfying object that they thought would make
them happy? Do they have to go on to another object to further pursue
satisfaction? And the big question that is hardest to admit to,
“is there really a point when a person reaches total satisfaction through
materialism and wealth? The honest answer is NO.
What lengths have
they gone and would they go to get what they want as apposed to what they need
to live a truly satisfying life? If a person hides what they buy from their
loved ones because they buy so frequently things they really don’t need, it’s a
sign. If a person can ignore the sight of one who has no home, food or
reasonable clothing, to feed their self pride, it’s a sign. If a person can
never get enough and can pursue their goals or objectives at the sacrifice and
expense of their loved ones, friends and family, it’s a sign. There will never
be satisfaction for people who are lost in the addiction of materialism. They
will always be looking for that which will satisfy themselves because they can
not see that they are addicted. Addicted to what man wants them to seek, to
acquire, to desire all to feed another mans (usually manufacturers) goals to
satisfy his own pride, ego and greed.
For some very sad
and unfortunate reason, most people don’t realize they are nothing more than
pawns played by their own weaknesses, especially their pride driven selfishness
until one day it dawns on them they have wasted the better part of their lives
chasing goals based on artificial rewards and man’s own ideals. It is not until
then that some, but only some blessed by the grace of God, realize they have
been looking in the wrong place for success, satisfaction and happiness and an
awareness of emptiness in their heart leads them in the direction of God. For
some it will be an expensive and very long path. For others they will realize
sooner and return as “the prodigal son”.
Yet for still others, they will never realize until their time has come
to an end and all they have to show for their life is nothing more than some
man made objects that they possess. Things they held so valuable but suddenly
will no longer have value because they can’t take it with them and they don’t
truly know Our Lord. All they have is the fear of which eternity their life has
earned them. Did you ever wonder why some of the poorest people monetarily can find such
satisfaction, happiness and fulfillment with nothing more than their knowledge
and love of God and their family? To pray that many may learn from the few.
31
Jesus said to them; "When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the
nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from
another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the
sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those
on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed
me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you
visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see
you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a
stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or
in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say
to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for
me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into
the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and
you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you
gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and
you did not care for me.' Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see
you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not
minister to your needs?' He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did
not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go
off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew CH25; 31-46)
