WHO AM WE ANYWAY?

Yesterday we read at Mass that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. That is pretty heavy stuff. But the heavier stuff is trying to figure out who the rich man is. It might be surprising.

A good number of years ago I was heading to Zimbabwe with Catholic Relief Services to see the work they were doing there with the “poor.” I was taken to task concerning this endeavor by a person who said, “What on earth are you going to Zimbabwe to help the poor there for when we have people right here in the U. S. who do not have food in their refrigerator?” Not downplaying the true plight that many in our nation face but the poverty of that nation (largely man made) was far worse. Their concern was not an empty refrigerator. They do not have refrigerators or a place to keep one. Even if they did there would not even be a plug in which they might have power for one. There was not a power grid or a power plant anywhere near them. There was no infrastructure, nor rich neighborhood close by where they might even beg a little, and absolutely no voice in their government, no news agency to spread the word – just them in the middle of a desolate area. Now that is poverty. They look on our poor with jealousy. I would not want to be even what we consider poor but for them it would be a giant step up. There is hope that poor in our nation could find clean water, some possible assistance with food and medical help, there is some chance that someone would find some resources for them if they really needed it, that some second hand clothes could be obtained with which to clothe themselves.

So who are the poor and who are the rich? How many people living in the richest nation not only in the world but in all of history could be considered truly poor? How very blest we are! We are so fortunate! Never have so many people lived so well as we. But with such a blessing comes responsibility. We have to face the quandary of the camel and the needle.

What is wrong with being one of the “haves”? Nothing in and of itself. But there are quagmires of which we need to be particularly careful. It is not until you have that you then have something to protect. It is not until you have that you have something to choose whether to be generous with it or not. It is not until you have that pride can take root. When one is a “have” one then also obtains some amount of power and power can be good or corrupt.

Then who can be saved? For us it is impossible but everything is possible for God. That is why we are believers. We encounter Christ daily and especially on Sunday and He shows us constantly how to overcome these pitfalls. And when we fail (and we do and will) He provides us with forgiveness and healing through the sacraments.

Poverty itself is not holiness but a pathway to holiness. Riches themselves are not slides to hell. If we rely on Christ they too can be a pathway to heaven albeit a more difficult one.

FOR SALE: VATICAN. CHARMING VIEW OF TIBER FROM VATICAN HILL. ALL SERVICES INCLUDED.

In a store a man stopped me and asked, “Are you a Catholic priest?” I had my blacks on but had pulled out my tab collar. After receiving an affirmation he said, “I thought so,” and then launched in on vicious attack, most of which was unfounded, against the Catholic Church. Don’t think I was hurt or offended, I relish in such things.

His biggest complaint was the wealth of the Vatican. It was the reason he left the Church so long ago. Why this particular point should be the linchpin for his leaving I can’t figure out (I would think some perceived false teaching would be a much better reason, but that is just me).

He was convinced that if the Vatican would sell off everything that it had, that there would be an end to poverty in the world. But the Catholic Church was there simply to suck up money from the rest of the world so that it (I suppose the lucky few that “get to” live in the Vatican) can live in luxury.

So let us suppose for a moment that the Vatican were to sell all that it had. To what end? Suppose every one who was poor in the world got $1,000 and a meal. Then what? Would the institutions and practices of the world have changed? Would the causes of poverty be wiped out? What of future generations who now also no longer have their patrimony as Catholics available to them?

And is not part of the “mission statement” if you will of the Catholic Church to be an influence on culture? What is to be gained by destroying some of the greatest collections of art and knowledge in the world? At the Vatican these pieces belong to all the nations.

There is the mindset too that the poor need a meal and a place to sleep and we have done our job. Not so. This is crass. This pays not attention to the dignity and complexity of the human person. The poor need beauty too. A sensual being needs to be fed more than in his stomach to be truly fed. Besides, to make this statement is to miss the fact that the Catholic Church is of the greatest contributors to those in need in the world already.

Perhaps I lack the eloquence to state the argument convincingly, but Professor Thomas F. X. Noble of Notre Dame does give some insight in his Popes and the Papacy course from the Teaching Company:

“Let’s do say the Vatican is not rich. There is this notion that the Vatican is rich. Well, the Vatican bank controls three and a half billion in assets but none of that belongs to the Vatican it belongs to the depositors. We could say, ‘Oh, they have all that stuff.’ Fair enough. Are they going to sell St. Peter’s? Are they going to sell Michael Angelo’s pieta? Are they going to sell the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? How could one put a value on any of these things?

“It may amuse you to know that each of those things is on the Vatican books with the nominal value of one Euro. For what would the price be?”

HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU KID

Do you feel sorry for millionaires? The responsibilities! The extra effort required in the spiritual life! The daily facing people who want part of your wealth! The complication of financial affairs! The burden of having to decide and pick out the car of your preference instead of having to settle for the one that you can afford.

Bet you don’t. Unless you are a millionaire. If you are not one, there tends to be very little sympathy. “Life is hard,” it is thought, “but it is sure a whole lot easier if you have a few bucks to see you through.” But one only has to look at the ruined lives of those who win the lottery or those whose lives crash because everyone bends to their whim in awe of their resources never supplying them with the needed societal boundaries that would keep them on track.

I set before you a blessing and curse.

People with good looks rarely get any sympathy either. More often than not I think lesser looking people would fall into envy rather than think on any burden that may be involved. Even I fall into the thought pattern every now and then of, “I’d like to look like that.” (Though being a celibate, I do not exactly what I would do with my newly found good looks.)

Yet for all the good fortune that we assume goes hand in hand with looking beautiful, there are many traps also. Being beautiful does give a person many breaks and opportunities that those who are beauty impaired are not given. But conversely I’ve seen equal amounts of beautiful people crying out for structure, accountability, and, in a way, acceptance and failing because everyone wants to be a friend of the good-looking person. More people may want to be your friend or even your lover, but just as often they want to take advantage of and use a beautiful person. A beautiful person may have an easier time making friends quickly, but they also have some friends because of how they look, not because of who they are. They may be given many breaks because of their beauty, but they can also be horribly unprepared to deal with everyday life when that beauty fades or suddenly disappears.

You cannot tell a book by its cover, but we try just the same. But how is it that God must see us? “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7. What if appearance did not register at all with us and we dealt with each other solely on the basis of the appearance of our souls?

“Honor and virtue are ornaments of the soul, without which the body, though it be really beautiful, ought not to be thought so.” Don Quixote

In the next life we might be surprised at who is truly beautiful and who is not. Beauty is wedded to truth without which beauty is empty; it is a lie. There will be those who are thought both ugly and beautiful in this life who will be radiant as the stars in the sky come the next, and those ugly and beautiful who will fade like the grass in the fields.

Rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, all have hurdles to overcome. It is said that one third of the world is starving and another one third is eating themselves to death. Because someone has a gold ring does not that life is easy or that their soul is saved. Because someone is hungry does not mean that they are sad or that their souls are not mightier than most powerful man on earth. Remember it was Lazarus who was named and went to heaven while the rich man remains anonymous and did not. (Luke 16:19-31)

All of us are needy. All of us called to service. Never assume that someone has it all. They may be the ones most in need.