My rich soul

One of the biggest questions a person may have is, “Who does God bless, give to or help? The poor or the rich, the weak or the strong? Ideally we expect God to be on the side of the poor and the oppressed. But what does the gospel say and why?

St. Mark 4:25 says, “For the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” A simple interpretation would be to say that God blesses the rich, over and against the poor. But this does not make complete sense and such a God will confuse us.

Verse 24 gives more clarity. It says, “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.” This is a call to do good and to not worry about tomorrow. God will take care of each day, as the Lord’s Prayer reminds us. We keep things, thinking that, we ourselves will need them. But when we do that, our blessings will be limited. Our wealth is supplanted by God’s blessings when our wealth is used for the good of the world.

Chuck Feeney gave away his entire fortune of a billion dollars. By the time Yu Pengnian died in 2015, he had given away his entire fortune. There are so many billionaires in this world. The resources of the earth are in the hands of a wealthy few. And yet there are also those who give away everything, who empty themselves, so that their soul becomes rich.

This lent, we should also heed to the call to become rich. To become rich in our soul. Amen.