Are We Hoarders?
Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
How much time do you spend accumulating things? Many homes are filled with bric-a-brac. Ornaments of all values and kinds, the latest in cooking and washing conveniences, entertainment centers with DVD’s that save what we miss or want to see again. Garages are often found built on the front of the house in such a way that we are advertising to the world that in there is our pride and joy, the carriage of all carriages. And if we manage to make the money to fill our house up with all these things, not to forget the pool and patio in the back, we still keep reaching out for more. Maybe we do not expect to own the world like a Caesar or a Napoleon, but we seem to be making a good attempt at it. What does Jesus say?
“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” He said that after he told those around him, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Jesus doesn’t condemn our possessions. He is very worried about what they are doing to us.
Are we making possessions our security? Are they substitutes for God? How much does all this stuff really mean to us? If we had to choose between Jesus and all that we own, what would we choose?
Someday, we are going to have to make that choice. Better start making it now. Or it won’t be any easier when that day comes. It will be just as hard then as if it were today.
Think about it seriously and do what you must do — soon - now!
