Mammon
8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
February 26, 2017
Matthew 6:24-34
“You cannot serve God and mammon (Mat 6:24)”
Mammon in Aramaic, the native language of Jesus, means riches, money or even properties. And nobody can serve both the true God and Mammon. In original Greek, Mathhew chose a stronger word than “to serve” Mammon, but it is to ‘become slave’ of Mammon. A slave is someone who no longer possesses freedom of his or her own; the lives are dependent on their master’s whim. Interesting to note is that the Mammon is not even a living being, and yet, people are freely laying their freedom to be its slave. It is irrational and in fact, unthinkable, but the reality narrates countless stories of people being possessed by riches and do inhuman things.
It is not an uncommon story that in many nations government officials are involved in large-scale corruptions, while ordinary citizens have to break their bones working and paying taxes. In Brazil, the Philippines and other countries, small farmers are violently evicted from their homes and lands by the greedy landowners. The grim reality of human trafficking is covert yet enormous. The children and women are abducted and traded as commodities, used as drug mules or sex objects. While others face immediate death as their bodily organs are harvested and sold in black market. Our beautiful forest and mountains are destroyed because of massive illegal logging and mining. This leads to nothing but ecological destruction, the animals are endangered, the rivers and seas become giant dumped sites of toxic waste, and our land is sorely barren and dead.
The mammon-worship does not only take place outside our fence, but without realizing it, it also plagues our own house and families. Who among us are addicted to work and begin to sideline our responsibilities in the family and neglect our health? Who among us start to think that giving money to our children is enough for their growth? Sometimes, the clergy and the religious are caught in the same mentality. We do our ministry as if there will be no tomorrow. We begin putting aside the basics like prayers, study, and community.
St. Thomas Aquinas makes it clear that riches and money cannot satisfy our deepest longing. He argues that wealth’s purpose is to meet our temporal human needs, but never to fulfill our spiritual and supreme desire. The real problem happens when we mistakenly accept riches as the fulfillment of our infinite desire for the infinite God. We make Mammon a god. We dethrone the true God and all serious problems start flooding in.
Jesus calls us to once again go back to true God. Other forms of gods, like wealth, money, gadgets, properties, cars, sex, prestige, works only drag us into slavery and misery. Just like the Hebrews in Egypt, only when they followed Yahweh, were they liberated from the slavery and marched toward the Promised Land. Yet, it was not easy. Like the Israelites who wanted to go back to Egypt after some time in the desert, we also cling to our Mammon firmly. It took 40 years for Israelites to struggle with their faithfulness to God, and perhaps we need years to before we rediscover the true God in your lives. Difficult indeed, yet, it is necessary because only God can bring us true happiness and liberation. We are liberated from the illusion of self-sufficiency, from the excessive ego-centrism. Not only we are freed, but also our family and our society, our environment and our earth. Want to make our world a better place? Let God be your God!
Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP