On being Rich

BUT SEEK FIRST the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

Matthew 6: 33
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THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG about being rich or to want to become rich in this life as well as in the next. But for a Christian, baptized forever into the great family of God, our Father, most especially a Roman Catholic Christian, there is absolutely no excuse for being rich because of our Lord is poor. One does not become rich without sin who preys on other people, most especially our Lord's poor.

Personally speaking, I agree with a good man whom I once heard say that he wants everybody to be rich. I also want all of us to become rich but rich in a right way, in a way that would stand to fulfill our own human heart's longing for true and lasting happiness.

One who is truly rich follows the advice of our Blessed Savior, whether consciously or unconsciously, building upon their virtues whether earthly or heavenly (the former good the latter an absolute good or a limitless good that serves all mankind), the happy substance of their lives along with the incidental material riches they exactly deserve by the measure in which they GIVE to which God allows them to RECEIVE.

Material riches are a means towards an end; a means toward attaining to God Who is our last end. Because for our human soul, God is happiness and happiness is God and if this were not the case, we would not see materially rich people who are sad, they would all be happy. But because it is the soul who wants to be happy and not the body, we can not be happy with any kind of abundance that is not rooted in the one divine Reality that each of us absolutely longs for like a love longing for Itself.

Now, the strange reality nowadays is that most rich folks are probably not as happy as they would like to be because they do not have their lives aligned with the real purpose of all good things received from the one Source of all good things. All that is good in this world and even in the next is meant to serve the common man and common woman from the womb to the tomb. Without service, all human relationships lose their meaning. Which is why the rich really needs the poor and the poor really needs the rich in an economy of happiness that is intended to raise us all up unto a knowledge and an understanding of our one last end Who is our One true happiness.

Sometimes, as a Roman Catholic Christian, I reflect on our fall from Eden and think that if we were born into exile only to be saved by a Savior as worthy and as mighty as Jesus Christ, then it would all have been worth it than to have continued on into eternity with God without personally knowing our most loving Jesus and thus, being included into the interior mystery of the one Triune perfection in the Most Holy Trinity. I do not think we would have potentially been as happy as we can be today without the Incarnation of the Word of God in Jesus Christ and His holy Passion and Cross, death and Resurrection into the everliving glory of God, the eternal Father, body, blood, soul, and divinity.

My beloved brethren and sisters, let us stay consistently real - one with another in God - and avoid much empty speculation about anything or anyone which is just idle rumor and a real offense to the truth. When it comes to the rich, say to yourself, "it is God Who will be their judge just as God is the judge of all", and know in your own heart that earthly fortunes are not as durable as one may think not when compared to those spiritual treasures that neither thief nor tyrant may take away from us.

Material riches stand to disappear in the twinkling of an eye but riches that are borne unto heaven, those treasures carried aloft by the eternal wings of every love that we give joyously and freely away for the benefit others, most especially our Lord's poor, these riches are those real riches consummate with the real happiness we stand to gain by our love of God in Christ, true self and others in God through Jesus Christ, our Blessed Savior and most loving Lord, our All, our Path and our Destiny. For the substance of our happiness is the same as the substance of our souls, spirit and truth. Material things that are created are only intended to serve this now promised eternal happiness here in exile time.

It is NOT up to us to judge who is rich and who is not for it is far better to pray heed the Gospel of our salvation and seek out our Lord's poor and to be present amidst them like a love longing for Itself. It is far better to remain sweet amidst real poverty instead of being bitter about the spectacular fortunes of others.

The romantic tale of Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor is just that, a fairy tale. In the real world with real people with real hopes responding to real needs stemming from real lack, the means will never, ever justify the ends. Let us bear into mind that at one time or another, it is inevitable that we shall each belong to our Lord's poor in our lifetime here on this poor world of ours - either as the unborn, as infants, as children, as youth, as adults and as the elderly - men and women both.

Indeed, to help our Lord's poor is to help ourselves in a very real sense. We shall each become truly rich by our joyous and free giving for what is earthly riches if our soul is forever bound to hellfire.

Our true happiness and total liberation as Christians, we all should know by heart, may only be found through the way of Christ, the one and only way revealed to us and presented to our faith to gain those vast treasures the immensity of which none of us has powers of imagination and memory to completely comprehend.

The one and the same Jesus Christ who in our one Solidarity is both our Path and our Destiny.

So let us condemn nothing and no one but our sins lest our sins condemn us to burn forever in an endless, meaningless void with our most loving God as our singular regret.

For God Himself does not condemn us for when He punishes it is always out of love but where we are condemned by our own sins it is also likewise because we are out of Love and therefore dead to all things alive in the LORD.

Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.