GOD Before Money

Reflection on Luke 16:1-13

“Money is the root of all evils." The Bible does not say that. What the Bible says is “The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6: 10). The full text is: "The love of money is the root of all evils, and there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds."

The love of money may indeed be the root of all evils. But can we do any good without money? We need money to build churches, to furnish them; we need money to spread the Good News; we need money to train various categories of workers in the vineyard of the Lord; we need money to carry out the many works of mercy that the Church is known for. Therefore, money cannot be bad in itself. It is the love of it that is bad. Perhaps I should say "inordinate love" of money. That is what happens when we are prepared to sacrifice higher values in the pursuit of money, values like honesty, truth, justice, peace. The extreme of inordinate love of money is when we are prepared to sacrifice even our faith in the pursuit of money. That can happen at different levels. It can happen if we abandon our faith to join a secret cult or society in order to make money. It can also happen if we choose to do business on Sunday instead of going to church to worship God. On no account must our quest for money come between us and our obligations to God. Otherwise we shall be guilty of being slaves of money rather than God's. That is what Jesus warns against in our Gospel passage today.

Therefore we do not do any wrong if we work hard and make money, a lot of it, by honest means. The next important question is what we do with our money. We should put our money at the service of God and humanity, including our own family. If on the contrary, we hoard our money or we spend it on sheer frivolities that do not do anybody any good, we are guilty of wrongful use of money.

It has been said that money is a good servant but a bad master. As long as we are the ones using money, we are safe. But the moment we allow money to use us, we are in trouble. Money can be a hard taskmaster. If we subject ourselves to it, it can make outrageous demands on us: it can demand our family or loved ones, it can demand even our own soul. In the end, it will take away our happiness. A certain writer put it this way: "Money is a useful commodity, and can purchase everything except happiness. It is a passport to everywhere except to heaven."