Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (1/25/2009)

Dear People of Holy Name,

Last week we heard John’s version of the call of Simon and Andrew. This week we hear Mark’s version. Both versions tell of the sudden and radical change the disciples make in their lives to follow Jesus. Over time, through the example of his life, Jesus teaches them how to love as God loves. The love Jesus reveals is an irrational love, because he loves us in our sin knowing that only his love can make us whole. God does not judge or condemn, he only calls and welcomes the willing. Thus we are called to love others even in their sin that they may ‘come round’ to the Lord.

In today’s gospel the radical following of Jesus brings the disciples to trust in him in material things as well. Putting their relationship with Jesus first, James and his brother John leave their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men. The two leave family and financial security behind to follow Jesus. That is radical and for me, a bit scary.

I admire artists who strive to make a living with their art. Many of them don’t have bi-weekly pay checks. They live with a precarious income from commissions and gigs that come and go like the wind. To live that way, I believe they have to love their art more than anything else and trust that they will make it from week to week and month to month.

While I feel I need the security of a steady income, the passion of the artist and their relationship to money is the same kind of challenge the disciples offer us in their leaving all behind to follow Jesus. Their example can makes us ask ourselves about our relationship to money, and how our passion for Jesus and God’s people shapes our relationship to money?

We all need money to live and we need to build some security for ourselves, but at the same time that we build our futures, we must also consider our financial choices in relationship to our faith in God whom we claim comes before all else. As we love our children and put money away for their college educations, do we have a plan for our giving to the church to help build a community of love that we claim is our ultimate passion?

The example of the disciples in today’s gospel also makes me wonder how much money is enough. Some people like expensive things and love to have all kinds of “toys’ like speed boats, multiple homes, etc., while others choose to have more kids and build a family. In both cases the amount of money one thinks they need will be driven by their passions. As Jesus said, ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.’ So our relationship with material things will reveal to us our passions.

With today’s gospel we can ask ourselves about our relationship with money and see what it reveals. In doing so we will become aware of what money means to us and what is important to us in our lives. This is true whether we have much or little. It will be a way to affirm and or redirect, if we feel called, what we live for and how we handle our finances. My hope is that it will deepen our passion for Christ and our desire to cherish what he cherished.

Let us pray this week that the Holy Spirit may stir up in us a passion to unite ourselves fully with Christ, and that our unity with God may deepen his joy and peace in our souls.

In Christ’s peace, Fr. Leo