The Use of the Mammon of Iniquity

Homily

Saturday, September 15, and Sunday, September 16, 2007, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, C

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Emmett; Sacred Heart Parish, Yale

Homily

Fr. Paul Ward

Saturday, September 22, and Sunday, September 2007

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Emmett; Sacred Heart, Yale

Today we must discuss the purpose of all material things, including money, as Jesus discusses them, and we will do so for our holiness and salvation. For he himself narrates to us this mysterious passage in which he praises a steward for apparently liquidating his master’s wealth. And it is full of many mysteries.

Jesus discusses, first of all, the term Jesus uses: “dishonest wealth.” I regularly complain about the pathetic English translations our illustrious Bishops have given us in the Liturgy, and on this expression I have a further complaint. Jesus uses the Syriac word for wealth, “mammon,” and doesn’t just use a colloquial term for money or wealth. We know the word mammon from other places in scripture, as when Jesus says, “You cannot serve both God and mammon” (Mt 6:24). And he does not use an adjective, “dishonest,” but another noun, “of injustice,” otherwise translatable as “of iniquity.” He does not say “dishonest wealth,” but “mammon of iniquity.”

      Jesus then gives us the moral to his story: “Make friends for yourself with the mammon of iniquity.” Something can be considered “of iniquity” in three ways.

First, because of the purpose for which it is used, such as a gun in the hand of a thief, in contrast with a gun in the hands of an honest police man. Second, because of the place from which it comes, such as money that one wins from dealing in narcotics. Third, because it is compared with something so incredibly just and good and equitous, that it shows how different it is; indeed, all things in comparison with God appear in contrast. We see this in the scriptures where we find Jesus saying, “If you who are wicked know how to give good things to your children, how much more your Father in heaven.” Man, male and female, is intrinsically good, so when he calls all of us wicked, this is in contrast with the infinite and immaculate perfection of the good, true, beautiful and mighty God.

So the mammon of iniquity is, under this third exception. There are riches in heaven; as Jesus says, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich for God” (Luke 12:21) The riches of heaven consist in grace, the seven sacraments, and good deeds, such as prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and all other virtues and spiritual goods, which exist inside man’s soul, not outside of man in the material world. The riches of this world compare to the riches for God as filthy mud compares to piles of gold and diamonds. And so all material treasures are the mammon of iniquity in this sense.

God indeed is the Lord of all things in then world, for a Psalm, almost humorously, reports God as saying, “Were I hungry, I would not tell you, for mine is the world, and all that fills it.” You, in the light of today’s Gospel passage, are the steward, and God is the wealthy master. How do you use the mammon of iniquity, that is, all created things, including money? Is the use you make of them such that “the Master will comment [you] for acting prudently?” and so winning eternal life (cf. Lk 16:8).

So when I ask you, what do you, steward of the God who is rich and who owns all the world, do with the mammon of iniquity, I am not inviting anyone to do evil as a means to good. I  simply ask, what do you do with the material things you have, the things that God in his Providence has entrusted to your use and free decision?

I encourage all to  use all your material things to serve first God, and second neighbor. How can one do this?

First, by tithing. In the Catholic Church, we do not give money just to pay bills, to hit our budget goals, to fulfill our financial plans. We give money as worship to God; we do it by tithing, and it has a name: alms. Some give, but very little. Sometimes they’re angry with their parish priest, for some petty disagreement. They then decide to give little. These poor souls think like this, “Well, I paid for a priest to do and say as I wish him to, and since he isn’t the kind of priest I wanted to buy, I won’t give to the Church.” Others think that the priests have so much time on their hands, that they read the lists of donations to see who is giving what; but this is nonsense. I have served, as a priest, seven parishes to date, and many others before as a seminarian, and never once have I wasted valuable time on such greedy and pointless endeavors. You don’t give to please the priest, nor to please your neighbor, but as an act of worship, and each will answer not to any parish priest or any fellow parishioner for how much they gave, at their last judgment. Each will answer to God, and to God alone. If Catholics tithed, as many Protestant communities demand from their members, we could direct more time to spiritual ministries instead of fund raising. Or shall I say, mammon of iniquity raising.

Another way to use the mammon of iniquity as a good steward is to serve your neighbor. This happens when we help our family, friends, even our enemies with the things we have. Money, and not just money. Time, food, clothes, the help of your skills, and everything else which pertains to our passing lives on earth. Couples need to own things in common. Parents need to stop this childish “my TV” and “my house” and “my car” when speaking to their own children. Give these things. You don’t need them. Give, and entrust your own lot to God, with supernatural faith.

When you become a good steward, and you use the mammon of iniquity – which is all earthly treasures – to love and serve God first and neighbor second – then when you die, the Lord himself will proudly show you to the angels, proud as a father of his own children, and commend you for acting prudently. Amen.