Haves and havenots - on a slippery ground!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 7th week in Ordinary Time

May 23, 2024 - James 5: 1-6; Mark 9: 41-50

Where your treasures are, there your heart will be, Jesus warned us well. The Word today insists that our treasures cannot be in our money bags or safety lockers! Wealth, of course is a blessing, the same can become a curse too, if it is not kept in its place! Much more radically thinking, the Word poses a fundamental question - who are truly "haves" and who are the "havenots"?

It is not only simplistic but even unwise to have an obvious answer to it in terms of wealth, possession and comforts hoarded. Someone who seems to have everything, might have really lost something basic that gives any meaning to life. Someone who has not, for the eyes of the world, might have something that no one can take note of - a solid sense of meaning in life. Is that not possible?

However, at times, unfortunately not merely at times but very often today, we see that persons with money are able to get what they want, without much ado! Even the judicial system lets them roam free despite their wrongdoings, merely because they have the money-power! Persons think they have everything when they have the money... but for how long? Would that money take us all the way? By the time one realises that he or she has over-depended on the wealth that is possessed, the person could be in a position from where he or she would not be able to undo the past mistakes! 

Isn't it high time, anytime in life, that we understand, placing our entire confidence on wealth and possession would make us tread on a slippery ground? The clarity on whom we depend is what will make us truly the people of God.