Jesus Wants Your Heart

 

Ok I am going to warn you. Brace yourselves. More than half of Jesus teachings are about money. I can see your eyes roll from here. The church always talks about money. Father so and so only cares about money. All they want is money why they talk about money so much we should talk about something more spiritual. 

Hear me again, over half of Jesus teachings are about money and about two-thirds maybe three-quarters depending on how you count of Jesus’s parables have something to do with money.

Why does Jesus talk so much about money. And a better question I think really its why does talking about money make you and me so uncomfortable. In fact I have zero doubt that if you asked people what’s the subject you want to hear least about at church the answer unanimously would be money. I know I served for over 45 years years, I heard the sighs, I seen the crossed folded arms, I encountered the resistance of rolling eyes, shrugs and frown faces. If it’s the subject that makes us most nervous, most anxious, most resistant and yet Jesus continues to insist on bringing it up. Maybe, just maybe, he knows something. Maybe Jesus realizes that the greatest competition He has for our hearts is our stuff. The greatest competition that God faces for your heart isn’t Satan it’s money. Maybe Jesus knows that if you are not careful and I can grow so attached to things and money and possessions that we become detached from Him.

So hear me, Jesus doesn’t want your money, He wants your heart and He makes it clear that money is a spiritual issue. Why? Because your heart follows your money. You think it’s the other way around that your money follows your heart. But no, your hearts follows your money. let me sharer this cute story. 

At 15, when his family moved to Florida a young man discovered something fantastic, girls. God’s best work, Wow! He began to do extensive study on guys who got girls and he realized that they all had a car. He didn’t have a car. So he went to ask his dad who said, you better have a plan because I’m not paying for your car. So he got a job selling tennis shoes at a sporting goods store and saved his $3.35 an hour pay that he was earning. He began to save and scout out the car and found just the right car, a beautiful Volkswagon rabbit and it only had 300,000 miles on it. He was $500 short, so he went to his grandmother who first was going to loan him the money but then decided to give it to him with one stipulation that he make her a promise that anytime he ride in a car he would wear his seatbelt. So he made the promise. 

He loved that car. He started getting up every Saturday morning before he went to work and at 6:30 in the morning washed that car in the driveway, he would turtle wax clockwise, and he get Armorall and spray the dashboard, he gets Windex for the windshield. He couldn’t get enough of that car. Pretty soon, he couldn’t wait to get up in the morning and spend time with his car. All his energy, all his attention was on his car. Why because he had sucked very single penny in the universe in that car. 

Your heart follows your money. That’s why Jesus says in this gospel you can’t serve two masters. You can’t serve God and mammon. Mammon is a fancy word for stuff. You will either hate one or love the other.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who realize that Jesus doesn’t want your money, He wants to capture your heart.
 

What Can I do?

 

Yesterday, I was invited by Fr. Nadeem to return to Holy Family in North Java for their annual outdoor picnic and preach a children’s Mass. Drizzle, windy and a cool breeze made sense to change plans and celebrate Mass in church. But there were no children.

The gospel story was about the Good Samaritan and I was going to share the story about  a kind stranger who rescued a poor victim of violence by offering him water and comfort. I had brought bandages to pass out to the kids. We use bandages to heal the hurt we get when we bruise or scrap ourselves. Sometimes our hurts come from inside our hearts when people have said or done mean things to us. But with no kids in church, i looked at all our parishioners in the pews that morning and shared that there is another hurt that gives us a lot of pain. It comes in the form of a question that many grandparents have on their minds. “I am worried about my grandchildren. They don’t go to Mass. What can I do?

Yes, your adult children are all just so busy. They work. Their grandchildren play soccer, and spend lots of time on their computers and phones. They are all so busy doing so many things. And they tell me they just don’t have time to go to Mass. We’re worried. We don’t think our daughter and her husband are interested in Catholicism at all. And they are not teaching our grandchildren anything about it.”

As grandparents we feel the pain and ask ourselves, “Is it our fault? Did we do something wrong? We tried really hard, and now they don’t go to Mass at all. And our grandchildren are getting nothing. We’re worried. Our children are grown now and have lost some or all interest in the Church.

Then as grandparents we ask, “What can I do about it?”

You’re asking the right question.” What can I do about it? Is this your question? Are you worried about your grandchildren?  Are you concerned their future will not include the Catholic faith, or any faith at all? Does it pain you to see all the obstacles the world places in the path of your grand- child and the Church?

I have good news for you. That pain you are feeling is a gift from God. You can use it for good. It’s a gift. In fact, it’s a vocation. God made you to be a grandparent. If you are a new grandparent, God is giving you a new vocation. If you are a seasoned grandparent, God invites you to get really clear on what your role means and why He gave you this vocation in the first place.

Don’t waste your pain. If you are feeling that pain as you watch your grandchildren growing up separated from the Catholic Church, please know it is sending an important message. If it hurts you to watch our culture growing ever more toxic, please know that pain is good. Yes, it is a good thing that it’s painful. That pain in your soul exists because there is a lot at stake.

What is your pain telling you? First, it is God getting your attention. C. S. Lewis used to say that pain is God’s megaphone to get our attention in the middle of all the noise of our lives. God whispers to us in our pleasures. He shouts to us in our pain.

Second, that pain means you have a choice: to do something or to do nothing. God is nudging you. He is calling you through that uncomfortable pain in your soul. He is inviting you out of the pain and into something deeper and truer. Trust Him.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are parents and grandparents and know that  God can bring purpose out of the pain we are feeling. God hopes to use that pain to do significant things in our life and in the lives of the people around you. God is nudging you forward. He is calling you into action. You have a role to play.