Merciless Master Money

A house that is today worth 25% less than it was a year ago.  A loaf of bread that is today 33% dearer than it was a year ago.  Money it seems not only makes the world go round, but also makes it mad.  For that house is no less a home today than it was a year ago; and the loaf of bread is no more filling today than it was twelve months ago.  The cost of living spirals, while the value of what we own plummets.  Money has indeed become our master, putting what we want beyond our reach, and turning what we have to dust.

God wills it otherwise.  Money is meant to serve us, not vice-versa; people before profit, not vice-versa; God the Giver rather than Greed the Grabber.  “Buy corn without money, and eat, and at no cost, wine and milk …”  We cannot serve two masters.  Having chosen money before God, we find ourselves betrayed.  Money our merciless master mocks us.  Only in God the Giver of all good things can we find the true measure of the things that matter most.

Fr. Eamon Devlin, C.M.

3rd August, 2008