"Mammon is a term that was used to describe greed, avarice, and unjust worldly gain in Biblical literature. It was personified as a false god in the New Testament. The term is often used to refer to excessive materialism or greed as a negative influence. During the Middle Ages, mammon was com-monly personified as the demon of avarice, richness and injustice." In our modern world, mammon is not meant to mean that successfulness or the ability to make a good income and live a comfortable lifestyle is "evil" or in conflict with serving God as a disciple of Christ. What is "evil" is the overarching desire for wealth or power or unjust worldly gain is evil. That desire for wealth which becomes the driving force or the "prime mover" for all our actions are what are opposed to God and makes it impossible to serve two masters, God and mammon.
More than 2000 years ago Christ, in the Gospel of Matthew, noted that "you cannot serve God and mammon." Meaning that mammon and God are opposites and the attempt to serve both leads to confusion, discord and most definitely unhappiness. Some 2000 years later those words ring absolutely true—happiness cannot come from dividing our inner nature in the service of opposite desires. It goes against our nature.
Christ means for us to come to know our true nature—our essence—and then to serve it to its fullest, meaning that when we know what God wants of us—the vocation He has placed into our hearts—He then directs our lives with the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we can serve God fully by living our lives according to God’s will.
This weekend we hear in the Gospel of Matthew more from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, which concludes next weekend. As with all of Christ’s teachings, we are challenged to meet head-on the nature of humanity which God created in His own image. In order to meet the potential—the fullness of love—that each one of us has been imaged in God’s likeness we are commanded to serve all humanity in God’s name. Today we hear that even in the challenges given by Christ’s teachings on discipleship our God will love us as tenderly as does a mother; He will care for us like a loving father.
Trust in the Lord! The theme of today’s scripture message is to trust in God even in the most necessary of concerns. Have faith that our God who loves us above all things will care for us—He will provide for all our needs both physical and spiritual. And if you can come to do that—trust in the Lord in all things—you will be able to stop worrying about tomorrow and focus on today, living life in the here-and-now rather than always preparing or planning or outwitting the future. In a less theological way, in 1988 Grammy artist Bobby McFerrin re-leased a song entitled Don’t Worry, Be Happy that calls to mind the similar idea that worrying about things only makes the world less happy—worrying does not help us but, as the lyrics of the song says, "don’t worry be happy cause when you worry your face will frown and that will bring everybody down."
In the first reading from Isaiah we hear that the people did not trust in the Lord, they did not believe that God would care and provide for them and so God responds with a litany of ideals of love: "could a mother cease to love the child she car-ried in her womb…even if she could forget, I will not." God declares that His love for His children is unshakeable. Remem-ber that last week we heard that God is not only just but also merciful. These teachings from the Sermon on the Mount should give us great comfort about how much God loves us and what He will do—how much grace and love He will infuse us with so that we can meet the challenges He places in our lives—so that we need not worry about meeting those challenges but become confident that God will give us all that we need to follow His will in our lives.
In my own personal life I feel blessed that God has always looked out for me—even when I worried about things and it is natural to be worried or concerned about things that we cannot control—but in the end we have to believe that God does love us and wants only the best for us. Why would He create us and then leave us without His assistance? He has blessed me in trying and difficult circumstances with people who have shown me the way to do God’s will. It seems that when you place your trust in God He always provides for you. Once you are able to "let go" and no longer be the controlling factor in all things, it seems the door opens wide and decisions are simple, if not easier, to make.
On March 2nd one of my closest priest-friends will be ordained as a bishop in the Catholic Church and be given a new ministry. It is an exciting time and yet bittersweet for him. He will move far from his home and family and will be faced with a great number of responsibilities—as well as new opportunities to see how God will be working in people’s lives. When he is ordained to the Episcopacy (meaning the role of a bishop, a successor to the Apostles, and not meaning anything to do with the Episcopal Church) he will need to have a motto for his coat of arms. Bishop-designate Christopher Coyne has selected the motto "Trust in the Lord" as a sign and symbol of his faith in God’s love for him and the people he will serve. ―In the Sermon on the Mount Christ shows us what it really means to be "poor in spirit" and "clean of heart" – it means to trust in the Lord’s providential care. It means to be single-minded, to have one Master"God." This call to faithfulness is not meant only for a bishop’s motto or a priest’s vocation, it is meant for each and everyone of His children—you and me—so that we can face the challenges of our dignity as the image and likeness of God with the confidence that comes from knowing He loves us, He wants us, He desires us for all eternity. That God will always be there for us, if we Trust in the Lord.
Altar Servers—I would like to invite our boys and girls who are thinking about becoming an altar server (acolyte) to come to our altar server training sessions (see the bulletin for dates and times).
I want to personally invite those who have made their First Holy Communion and would like to serve God by helping by becoming an acolyte at Mass. You will learn the parts of the Mass and the important role of the altar server, so that the Mass can smoothly and reverently take place. You are a very important minister in the Mass.
Please feel free to speak to me or Mrs. Kathi Bonner about joining the Church’s elite team of altar servers. The more we have on our altar serving team, the easier it is for all involved when it comes to scheduling enough servers at each Mass. I appreciate your willingness to serve God in this very important min-istry. Thank you!
Peace,
-Fr. Michael
FROM FATHER MICHAEL...
