Money, root of evils?

IT is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God?” (Mk 10,25).

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Jesus’ words are rather disturb­ing. What does he mean? Does he mean that the affluent are almost impossible to enter God’s king­dom? Conversely, are the poor necessarily privileged to enter his Kingdom?

A witty man once said: “People say, ‘Money is the root of all evils,’ but they’s welcome to plant it in my garden anytime.” In other words, money is not necessarily evil.

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Jesus himself enjoyed the food, the parties, the lodging offered by rich people like Zaccheus the tax collector, Joseph of Arimathea who lent his tomb. With money you can do a lot of good like put­ting up low-cost housing or em­ploy the jobless in your company. But with money you can do a lot of evil, too. You can bribe people, buy votes, trade and market ille­gal drugs, influence judges’ deci­sions, and so on.

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ATTACHED TO WEALTH? The danger of being rich – and this is what Christ warns against – is the excessive attachment to wealth and the selfish pleasures that go with it.

This is shown in today’s Sun­day’s gospel episode (Mk 10,17) where the rich young man went away sad because he couldn’t give up his possessions in order to follow Christ.

What’s censured is not wealth in itself but the reversal of values, that is, instead of man possessing his riches, he becomes possessed by them.

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To illustrate: A businessman who resigned as president of a company has this observation: “There’s one corporation chief I had who worked conservatively 19-20 hours a day. His whole life was his business. And he de­manded the same of his execu­tives.’’

Meetings might be called on Christmas eve or New Year’s Day, on Saturdays or Sundays. One day the slave-driving boss was found slumped on his office table – a victim of heart attack!

Poor guy, he ended a servant, not of people, but of money.

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On the reverse side, poverty is not necessarily a virtue. A poor man who curses his lot, whose sole obsession in life is to be as rich as his wealthy neighbor is very poor, indeed. But if, despite poverty, one can turn to God and help his fellowmen, then poverty is a Christian virtue.

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“Sharing” to the underprivileged means not merely doling out but putting one’s money in meaning­ful employment like paying legal wage that’s legal, giving to em­ployees more benefits like hous­ing, credit coops. Giving them the legal wages will also prevent un­rest and strikes.

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There are lots of people living in grinding poverty. LIVE SIMPLY AND SHARE SO OTHERS MAY SIMPLY LIVE.

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JOKE ONLY. Three kids are bragging to each other. The first says, “Our house is worth P20 million.” The second countered, “Our garage alone costs P15 mil­lion.” The third says nonchalantly, “That’s nothing. The roof of our house is worth P500 million.”

The two kids were dumbfound­ed. “Ha, why so expensive?” He replies: “Our roof is the flyover!”

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FAMILY TV MASS – aired on IBC 13 (channel 15 cable) at 7-8 a.m. every Sunday and on interna­tional GMA Pinoy TV. SPONSOR: Soldiers of Christ Catholic Com­munity, Pulilan, Bulacan. Priest: Rev. Vicente Robles.

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