Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

An unexpected gift came my way ten days ago: $50 cash. It’s been sitting on an upstairs table as I’ve been thinking what to splurge on. Something for vacation, maybe, like a pair of comfy walking shoes? Or put it towards a facial, perhaps? I was obviously leaning toward first world creature comforts.

Then came Father Ben’s sermon this past Sunday. The Gospel reading for the day was the hard-not-to-fidget-through story of the super-rich guy asking Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Jesus reminded him to follow the commandments, and the guy basically waved his hand in a “been there/done that” response.

Then Jesus told him to give up his “stuff.” It seems the man’s riches were so important to him they got in his way of following the way.

The story ends badly since the man with the earthly riches just could not come to grips with the aspect of letting go. As on the old television game show Let’s Make a Deal, he was the player who walked away from the game with what he had instead of choosing door #1.

You and I are just like that guy; we have stuff that separates us from focusing on our faith, on what really matters, too.

We may not lead overindulgent lifestyles, and we may not be considered wealthy, but we have stuff. And it’s not necessarily the big physical items that command our money, time, and attention. It can be serious addictions to drugs, alcohol, or gambling. Or smaller addictions like paying more attention to our screens than to our family and friends.

In the end, it’s all stuff.

I’ve included a link to the sermon below. It takes eleven minutes to watch. Do you have eleven minutes?

This point of the sermon was not that we should give up everything we have, wear sackcloth, and live in caves. The point was for us to be aware of how we feel about and how we think about our stuff. What is our relationship to it?

$50 is not life-changing money. But I gave much thought to that sermon. Thoughts of spending it on shoes or toward a facial now seemed so petty.

So I drove to our local Hospice and made a $50 donation in memory of my son Tim. And maybe that will transform into life-changing money by how someone’s final days on earth are eased.

We can’t begin to understand how our words may affect others to respond.

~~~~~~~~~~

Father Ben’s sermon