Amos remains a relevant figure in today’s world for there exists a gap between rich and poor which is not just abysmal but also quite unbridgeable. Jeff Bezos or people in the same shade of wealth like him and the common man or woman on the street might as well be existing in different universes.
On the one hand, standing up for justice is laudable. What we need to be conscious of is the phenomenon of being a sour grape. It describes a negative attitude towards wealth only because it is unattainable to the person who is seemingly fighting for justice. In fact, Glaucon, a character in Plato’s Republic, gave a cynical definition of justice. According to him, there are some who fight for justice not because they love justice but because they do not possess the power to be unjust and to get away with it.
Think about it. Some of our political leaders are corrupt because they have the power to be corrupt and best of all, they believe themselves to be untouchable. However, there is also the type who stood against corruption becoming corrupt as soon as they come into power. In the struggle for justice, we may want to be mindful or watchful of our relationship with wealth and power.
Both power and wealth are ordinary measures of success for us. The present philosophy of life is driven very much by production and performance. A cursory glance at our marketing communications confirms this theory. They are centred on access provided by wealth to a lifestyle which makes the wealthy an envy for those who are poor. The engine that drives our notion of a good life is very much powered by envy. Keeping up with the Jones is what they call it.
Thus, the Gospel provides a way to reflect on how we should treat in particular our relationship with prosperity and material plenty. In the parable Jesus brings out the idea that God must come first in our consideration.
The steward is praised for his astuteness. How? He had been caught wasteful and for that, he would be punished with the loss of employment. Somehow, he managed to secure for himself a future by renegotiating the debt owed to his master. That astuteness, and not his dishonesty, earned the praise of Jesus.
Even though money was involved but what the steward did was even better. He was able to manoeuvre and in a way brought to fore two points to consider. First, Jesus brought up the issue that it is basically impossible to serve God and mammon. Second, it is our duty and our salvation to prioritise one over the other, which is, to put God first over wealth. If God comes first, then wealth will have a role to play in our lives.
Years ago I read a quote attributed to St Teresa of Avila but now I am no longer sure if she did say this. Still it bears repeating because it shows us how we should treat money for what it is. “Money may be the Devil’s excrement, but it is certainly a good fertiliser”. If St Teresa did say that, then she knows what money is and what it is good for. In other words, how can we possess money or wealth without being possessed by it?
Our relationship with money is never in terms of possession but as the Gospel reminds us, the material universe is ours only in terms of stewardship. Thus the quantum we possess is basically the amount we are looking after and not the amount we “own”. The African proverb best illustrates this. “We do not inherit the world from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children”. We are basically stewards and servants.
This truly sounds like a communist manifesto which aims to centralise or “collectivise” wealth. But it is not. Rather it is to understand how wealth should serve us rather than be worshipped. We should neither fear wealth nor be controlled by it. And if we desire heaven, God has to come first whereas wealth has to serve us. It is not and never the other way around. This is the long-term view to take if we want to secure our place in eternity.
