An alternate translation of today’s Gospel reads in part: “Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto
you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ”
Clearly Jesus is teaching us about the place that our material well-being should occupy in our
lives. At
first blush, it would seem that he is offering a stark choice between
two, mutually conflicting alternatives: God or mammon. You cannot serve both; you have to choose
one. And to choose God, we need to stop
worrying about how to provide for ourselves. As a solution this seems suspiciously simple and, as a life plan, a
little naive and even foolhardy. Rather
than presenting us with a simple choice, Jesus is saying something more
profound.
He is warning us against adopting a fundamentally flawed
view of the world, warning
us not to put God and our material needs on the same footing. He is reminding us that God is not just the greatest
of all beings; he is totally beyond all created reality. He brought everything
that is into being and he holds everything that is in existence. God is not a part of creation; he completely
transcends all space and time.
If we were to “serve” both God and wealth, that is , if we were to give the
same importance to our material needs as we give to God, we would in effect, be
diminishing God: we would be reducing him to the level of the material
universe. Conversely,
by trying to serve both God and mammon, we would be elevating the material
world- our own well-being and ambition- to the level of the divine. We would be usurping the role of Providence
by making ourselves masters of our own destinies, and if we were successful at
it, we might very well convince ourselves that we have no need of God.
But in
this passage Jesus places us firmly in the created world. By comparing us to birds and flowers, Jesus
reminds us that we are creatures just as they are – even if we are of a more
privileged variety - and that we are equally dependent on divine providence for
all our needs.
Photograph by Brother Brian. Excerpts from Father William's homily at this morning's Mass.
