No to the idolatry of money
Money, turned into an absolute idol, is for Jesus the greatest enemy of the world that God wants, a world that is more worthy of human beings and where there is justice and solidarity. It has now been twenty centuries since the Prophet from Galilee strongly denounced the worship of Money as the greatest obstacle Humanity faces in its march toward to a life of fellowship that is in keeping with human dignity.
Jesus’ logic is compelling: “You cannot serve God and Mammon.” God cannot reign in a world and be Father of all, without demanding justice for those who are excluded from a dignified life. That is why those who, dominated by a craving to accumulate wealth, foster an economy that excludes the weakest, and abandons them to hunger and misery, cannot work for that more human world that God wants.
What is happening with Pope Francis is surprising. While the media and the social networks circulating on the internet inform us down to the minutest details about the smallest gestures of his admirable personality, his most urgent cry to all Humanity is concealed in a shameful way: “No to an economy of exclusion. Such an economy kills.”
However Francis does not need long arguments or deep analyses to expound his thinking. He knows how to summarize his indignation in clear and expressive words that could serve as the opening of any TV newscast or the headline of the news in any country. Here are just a few examples.
“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality.”
We live in “the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.” As a result, “while the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few.”
“The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”
As he himself has said: “this message is not Marxism, but pure Gospel.” It is a message that should have a permanent resonance in our Christian communities. The contrary would be a sign of what the Pope says: “We end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain.”
José Antonio Pagola
March 2, 2014
8 Ordinary Time (A)
Matthew 6, 24-34