Welcome to Brothers and Sisters, the weekly meetup for prayer* and community at Daily Kos. We put an asterisk on pray* to acknowledge that not everyone uses conventional religious language, but may want to share joys and concerns, or simply take solace in a meditative atmosphere. Anyone who comes in the spirit of mutual respect, warmth and healing is welcome.
"You can't take it with you." Such is often said about wealth and all things temporal - when you die, none of it will belong to you. If there's a Heaven, you can't bring anything there with you.
All three of the readings being read in Catholic Masses this weekend have to do with vanity. Here are some highlights, starting with Ecclesiastes 1:2:
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
Colossians 3:9-10:
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Luke 12:15:
"Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions."
Luke 12:20:
But God said to him,
'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Of course, these readings do what Finley Peter Dunne said a newspaper is actually supposed to do: to "Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable." Those who value wealth, power, and self are warned that such wealth, power, and self-interest are, in the end, pointless.
It would also seem that those who aren't so fortunate - who long for better things - should take note that even if they lack wealth, that does not matter. Thus it was a comfort for me to hear those words last night - I learned yesterday that I was out of consideration for a job for which I felt highly qualified. I am trying my best to not be discouragd by the job situation.
At any rate, what matters, according to these readings, is that we set our hearts on being rich in character, not rich in posessions.
An interesting topic to ponder, especially when one thinks of income disparities between rich and poor, and the willingness of some who taint the good name of Christianity through their greedy, narcissistic actions.
(Incidentally, while I found some stuff about greed and economic injustice in the Gospels, I still have yet to find anything in said Gospels about abortion or gay marriage. Just saying.)