In God We *should* Trust
I saw a clip of our usually calm, smooth President responding to those who question all his stimulus spending plans.
He flipped back, in a sarcastic tone, that spending was the point, spending was stimulus!
Granted, the guy must be up against tremendous pressure. But, in reading St. Luke's Gospel with my 6th grade son today and sharing the Navarre notes on chapter 12 with him, I was struck by this...
Quoted from Paul VI Populorum progressio, 19 -
"...man's stupidity consisted in making material possession his only aim in life and his only insurance policy. It is lawful for a person to want to own what he needs for living, but if possession of material resources becomes an absolute, it spells the ultimate destruction of the individual and of society. Increased possession is not the ultimate goal of nations nor of individuals....it imprisons man if he considers it the supreme good, and it restricts his vision. Then we see hearts harden and minds close....Both for nations and for individuals, avarice is the most evident form of moral underdevelopment."
And the car commercials are now saying, "Buy a Hyundai and if you lose your job this year, you can return it!" (Just get us your money quick, before it's gone!) My email is loaded with catalog companies offering me "stimulus check coupons" to save $10 or more shopping with them. Aren't we just feeding a vicious cycle?
Will shopping really SAVE us?
Hasn't this worship of a money god deceived us into believing we "deserved" what we couldn't afford? Hasn't it confused our "wants" from "needs?" Has it made us more moral? Or, are our commercials to buy just slick with sexual tones serving up the self-gratifying vice we know it to be deep down?
Yes, I think we are morally underdeveloped. And we do need REAL change, the kind that will bring hardship because what is good for us is often difficult. We need to worship a god other than our own intellect, a god other than money. Can we really hinge it all on continuing to buy and spend on the temporal world? On Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we will be reminded that it is all DUST......
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Luke 12:34
Lord, let me fix my heart, my HOPE on heaven. Let me live simply and for You, not ensnared in the trappings and materialism of this world.
HOPE, the Catechism says, "is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."84 "The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life."
WHAT do I really NEED?
8 comments:
As I said in a post yesterday, outside of God, isn't the whole concept of security rather illusory?
It is frightening to think that so much of our society is built on this false "god". And advertisers play on the worst part of human nature at times. The other day I heard a radio commercial pretty much saying that you would be a better mother if you gave your kid Gatorade. Made me decide to boycot that product!
It's the same the whole world over...a dear friend just sent me this quote from an Irish newspaper. It seems very appropriate to the mindset that is so prevalent amongst our consumeristic/materialistic society:
"We survived the famine," an Irishman-turned-Californian told me before I came here, but we're not sure we will "survive the feast."
Gorging ourselves in a time of want is sinful in so many ways...
To quote St. Augustine:
"God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you."
I totally agree. I don't presume to know as much on economic policy as someone in the US dept. of treasury, but I just don't understand the obsession with spending. I understand that to an extent it motivates the economy, but it seems to be a terrible cycle. There are now 5 million americans in the unemployment line. 5 Million. How absurd to encourage frivolous spending and materialism when there are so many who need support and are losing their homes! It seems like rather bad advice to say go party with your money even though you may not have it for long or not at all! Because that's going to get you off your feet right?(sarcasm) I think I'll be pinching my pennies instead. God calls us to depend on him and to live simply. There is something beautifully spiritual in living with out, living simply, saving, reusing, conserving...appreciating.
AMEN!!!
Our way of life has always been God first. I am praying and hoping people will get back to people and what really matters. Like the good ol'days when people went to church and visited with each other. When people didn't have to move so far away from family.
great post!
It's better to live by your needs, and stop borrowing from tomorrow. Invest in eternity.
I love this post!
I keep saying...
There is nothing wrong with our current spending. People are finally doing what they should have all along, it just took a recession for them to get it.
Like you said, there is a clearer definition between wants and needs.
Families have more family time. We are not overspending frivolously. We are finally being responsible financially and with each other.
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