The strange freedom of owning less than we possess.
Saturday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time · Psalter Week III · Optional Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Opening
There is a peculiar sort of wealth that makes a man poorer the more of it he acquires. It begins innocently enough. A possession is meant to serve him, to make his life easier or more pleasant. Then, somewhere along the way, he begins serving the possession.
He must insure it, polish it, protect it, worry about it, and perhaps purchase another possession in which to keep the first one.
This morning, Our Lord speaks about money with a frankness that is almost uncomfortable. He does not condemn the existence of possessions. He asks a far more searching question: who is serving whom?
Saint Paul, meanwhile, writes from the experience of both plenty and want. He has discovered something extraordinary: a man may be deprived of nearly everything without being deprived of what matters most.
We begin by asking God for the wisdom to recognize the difference.
Opening Verse
Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Invitatory
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, from whom every good gift proceeds.
Psalm 94 (95) — An Invitation to Praise God
Come let us praise the Lord with joy: let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, from whom every good gift proceeds.
Psalmody
Psalm 118:145–152 (119) — The Lord Is Near
Antiphon: Thou art near, O Lord, and all thy ways are truth.
I cried with my whole heart, hear me, O Lord: I will seek thy justifications.
I cried unto thee, save me: that I may keep thy commandments.
I prevented the dawning of the day, and cried: because in thy words I very much hoped.
My eyes to thee have prevented the morning: that I might meditate on thy words.
Hear thou my voice, O Lord, according to thy mercy: and quicken me according to thy judgment.
They that persecute me have drawn nigh to iniquity; but they are gone far off from thy law.
Thou art near, O Lord: and all thy ways are truth.
I have known from the beginning concerning thy testimonies: that thou hast founded them for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Thou art near, O Lord, and all thy ways are truth.
Canticle — Wisdom 9:1–6, 9–11
Antiphon: Send forth thy wisdom, O Lord, to guide the work of our hands.
God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word,
And by thy wisdom hast appointed man, that he should have dominion over the creature that was made by thee,
That he should order the world according to equity and justice, and execute justice with an upright heart:
Give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne, and cast me not off from among thy children:
For I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid, a weak man, and of short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws.
For if one be perfect among the children of men, yet if thy wisdom be not with him, he shall be nothing regarded.
And thy wisdom with thee, which knoweth thy works, which then also was present when thou madest the world, and knew what was agreeable to thy eyes, and what was right in thy commandments.
Send her out of thy holy heaven, and from the throne of thy majesty, that she may be with me, and may labour with me, that I may know what is acceptable with thee:
For she knoweth and understandeth all things, and shall lead me soberly in my works, and shall preserve me by her power.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Send forth thy wisdom, O Lord, to guide the work of our hands.
Psalm 116 (117) — All Nations, Praise the Lord
Antiphon: The mercy of the Lord is confirmed upon us for ever.
O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.
For his mercy is confirmed upon us: and the truth of the Lord remaineth for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: The mercy of the Lord is confirmed upon us for ever.
Short Reading — Philippians 2:14–15
And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations;
That you may be blameless, and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world.
Short Responsory
Lord, teach us to seek the riches that endure.
Let our hearts be faithful in the smallest things.
Lord, teach us to seek the riches that endure.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Lord, teach us to seek the riches that endure.
Gospel of the Day — Luke 16:9–15
The Gospel according to Saint Luke.
And I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.
He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater: and he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater.
If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon, who will trust you with that which is the true?
And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Now the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
And he said to them: You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts; for that which is high to men, is an abomination before God.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Benedictus — Canticle of Zachary
Antiphon: Blessed be the Lord, who visits his people and leads them in the way of peace.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him, all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Blessed be the Lord, who visits his people and leads them in the way of peace.
Intercessions
Let us pray to Christ our Lord, who became poor for our sake that we might inherit the riches of heaven.
Lord, make our hearts rich in thy love.
For the Holy Father, bishops, priests, deacons, and all who serve the Church: that they may bear witness to the freedom of those who seek first the kingdom of God.
Lord, make our hearts rich in thy love.
For those entrusted with public office, commerce, and the resources of nations: that they may exercise their responsibilities with justice, honesty, and concern for the poor.
Lord, make our hearts rich in thy love.
For all who labour this Saturday, for those seeking employment, and for families burdened by financial uncertainty: grant them honest opportunity, sufficient provision, and peace of mind.
Lord, make our hearts rich in thy love.
For our homes and families: that our possessions may serve our lives together, and never become more precious to us than the people we love.
Lord, make our hearts rich in thy love.
For the sick, the lonely, the grieving, and those whose material poverty is accompanied by real suffering: raise up generous neighbours and faithful friends to accompany them.
Lord, make our hearts rich in thy love.
For the faithful departed, especially those who laboured quietly and generously for others: receive them into the everlasting dwellings promised by thy Son.
Lord, make our hearts rich in thy love.
For ourselves: that we may be faithful in small duties, grateful in prosperity, patient in hardship, and generous with every gift entrusted to us.
Lord, make our hearts rich in thy love.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Concluding Prayer
Almighty and merciful Father, from whom every good and perfect gift proceeds, teach us to receive the things of this world with gratitude and to employ them with wisdom.
Preserve us from the love of riches and from the fear of poverty. Make us faithful stewards of what thou hast entrusted to our care, generous toward those in need, and steadfast in the duties of our daily lives.
Grant that, seeking thy kingdom above all earthly possessions, we may come at last to the everlasting treasure prepared for those who love thee.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Blessing
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
The Paradox of the Day
The only wealth we can keep forever is the wealth we are willing to give away.
Chesterton for the Morning
“To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.”
— G. K. Chesterton, The Wisdom of Father Brown, “The Paradise of Thieves” (1914).
Project Gutenberg
A Chestertonian Meditation
The Man Who Owned Everything Except His Saturday
There is a particular kind of tragedy that occurs in garages.
A man begins with a perfectly reasonable desire to put his automobile somewhere out of the rain. He builds a garage. Then he purchases a lawn mower, a bicycle, some tools, a ladder, and several mysterious boxes whose contents have been forgotten but whose possible usefulness remains beyond dispute.
Eventually, the automobile is left outside in the rain because there is no longer room for it.
The garage has fulfilled every purpose except the one for which it was built.
This is amusing because it is familiar. It is also a fairly accurate picture of the human soul when possessions begin to possess their owner.
Our Lord’s warning in today’s Gospel is not that money is wicked or that property is shameful. Such an interpretation would be particularly strange coming from the One who spent much of His earthly life in a carpenter’s household, surrounded by the honest tools and materials of a useful trade.
A carpenter must own tools. A farmer needs land. A mother needs a home. A businessman requires capital, and a workman deserves his wages.
The difficulty begins when the instrument becomes the master.
A hammer is an excellent servant, but a very poor god.
And money, which is merely a rather ingenious instrument for exchanging the fruits of human labour, makes an even worse deity.
Christ’s words are uncompromising: “You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Notice that He does not say we cannot have both God and money. He says we cannot serve both.
There is all the difference in the world.
A man may possess a thousand acres without being possessed by them. Another may possess only a few dollars and think of nothing else. Wealth and poverty are real material conditions, and their consequences should never be dismissed. But the spiritual condition of a man cannot be calculated by counting his coins.
The question is not simply how much he owns.
The question is what owns him.
Saint Paul offers a remarkable illustration in today’s first reading from Philippians. He has known abundance and want, comfort and deprivation. He does not pretend that hunger is pleasant or that suffering is imaginary. Yet he has discovered a freedom that neither prosperity can purchase nor poverty can take away.
His circumstances change. His ultimate allegiance does not.
That is the secret of Christian contentment.
It is not the conviction that everything is satisfactory. It is the discovery that something remains steadfast even when almost everything else is unsatisfactory.
Chesterton understood the comedy of confusing possessions with happiness. He loved ordinary pleasures, cheerful households, good meals, books, walking sticks, and the countless small conveniences of civilization. He was hardly a prophet of grim austerity.
Indeed, one of the great attractions of Chesterton is that he seems perpetually astonished that the world contains so many delightful things.
But he also understood that delight is different from acquisition.
A child who receives a wooden toy may enjoy it more intensely than a wealthy collector enjoys a room full of expensive objects. The child sees a kingdom. The collector sees an inventory.
The child asks what adventures the toy might contain. The collector asks what the toy might be worth.
One possesses an object. The other encounters a wonder.
And perhaps this is why the Gospel insists upon faithfulness in little things.
We are inclined to imagine that holiness must be tested by extraordinary circumstances. We picture great sacrifices, heroic decisions, dramatic renunciations, and magnificent gestures of charity.
But most of us will encounter the decisive spiritual questions in circumstances considerably less theatrical.
An honest invoice.
A promise kept.
A bill paid promptly.
A generous tip.
An hour given to someone who cannot repay it.
A tool returned to its owner.
A little money set aside for someone who has none.
These things are not glamorous. They are not likely to be recorded in history books. Yet Christ says that faithfulness in little things reveals the character of faithfulness in great ones.
It is a startling proposition.
Heaven may be interested in how we behave at the grocery checkout.
The angels may take notice of a man who returns the extra change a cashier accidentally handed him.
An ordinary Saturday morning may contain a moral adventure as consequential, in its own scale, as any battle fought by kings.
This does not make ordinary life smaller. It makes ordinary life immeasurably larger.
The world is full of people who dream of doing great good when they become rich, powerful, influential, or famous. Some of them may indeed do great good. But the Christian need not wait for any of these promotions.
He can begin with the money in his pocket and the neighbour at his door.
And here we discover the most delightful reversal in today’s Gospel.
Money is temporary. Christ tells us plainly that it will fail. Every earthly fortune, however impressive, belongs to a world in which fortunes eventually disappear.
But money can be used for something that does not disappear.
It can feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, educate a child, sustain a family, support the Church, or bring relief to someone who is suffering.
A coin cannot enter heaven.
But an act of love can have consequences that reach into eternity.
This is the extraordinary economy of Christianity: something perishable may become the instrument of something imperishable.
The bread is eaten, but the kindness remains.
The money is spent, but the mercy is not lost.
The hour is gone, but the love expressed within it belongs to a reality that time cannot destroy.
This is not an argument for careless spending or irresponsible generosity. A father who neglects his family in order to impress strangers with his charity has misunderstood stewardship. Prudence, honest work, saving, and provision for those entrusted to our care are themselves moral duties.
But prudence must never become a respectable name for fear.
And security must never become a respectable name for slavery.
There is something wonderfully liberating about remembering that we are stewards rather than absolute owners. We have been entrusted with things for a time. Our task is to use them well.
The house is meant to shelter life.
The table is meant to welcome guests.
The tools are meant to accomplish good work.
The money is meant to serve human needs.
And Saturday is meant to be lived, not merely managed.
Perhaps, then, this morning offers a modest examination of conscience.
Not whether we own too much by somebody else’s standard, but whether we are free enough to enjoy what we have and generous enough to share it.
Not whether we have achieved financial perfection, but whether we have allowed money to become the measure of our worth.
Not whether we can afford every pleasure, but whether we still recognize the pleasures that cost nothing.
The morning light through the window.
The familiar voice from the kitchen.
The smell of coffee.
A church bell across town.
The unexpected opportunity to do somebody a kindness.
The garage may still be full. The bills may still be waiting. The work may still be unfinished.
But the day itself has arrived as a gift.
And no one has yet sent us an invoice for the sunrise.
Closing
Lord, give us grateful hearts for what we have, generous hands for what we can share, and the wisdom to know what is truly ours.
May we be faithful in the smallest things today, and free in the love of Christ.
Chesterton Radio
A word about supporting Chesterton Radio
If Morning Prayer has become part of your day, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep Chesterton Radio’s daily prayers, stories, mysteries, and Deep Dives available to everyone.
Subscribe at ChestertonRadio.com/subscribe. You can also listen to The Open Door, our 24-hour stream, at Live.ChestertonRadio.com.