New York, St. Margaret, 5th August 2007

 

Today we have to talk about money. 

This is not the first time and not the last time when we speak about it. This is just the proper time.
So let me tell three words: a question, a truth and a duty.

1. The question is:
“What do you gather in your life?”
Can you say: I am richer than 20 years ago?
Can you say: I have more money than 40 years ago?
Jesus didn’t say: You must not gather money.
Jesus didn’t say: It is a sin to be rich.
Jesus said: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
So the question is:
“What do you gather, what do you amass in your life?”
Can you say: I am holier than 20 years ago?
Can you say: I pray better then 10 years ago?
Can you say: I know God better than when I was child?
Can you say: Now, I love more my wife than in the day of our wedding ceremony?
“What do you gather, what do you amass in your life?”
I hope, you agree – It would be very sad, even tragic to die with the full stomach and an empty heart. 

2. The second word is truth.
Is it truth that money is the most important?
Is it truth that richer people are happier?
Is it truth that you are zero, total nonentity, if you are poor?
I thank God, every day, that he loves me not because of my pocket or position.
I thank God, that every human being has the same value in his eyes: that the president of USA or the pope are not more valuable than the starving people”.
I thank God that he says to the people who think only about money: “You fool”.
I thank God that he says very strongly because there is no place for nicely speaking when the man is terminally ill. 

3. The last word about money is duty.
I don’t know your society very well, but I’m convinced that not only in USA but in every corner of the earth we, the Christians, we have to show people the proper attitude to money. We must do it, because it is the matter of the life and the death. That’s our duty.

We don’t envy people who are richer than us.
We are not worry about cash.
We don’t complain that we have to few money.
We are not going mad for dough.
We don’t cheat in job.
We don’t steal.
We pay taxes.
We are not slave of Dollar.
We are just happy to have money.
But we are happier to have God, family, love and faith.
We are just happier to have things that never pass away.