Fr. Tom Ritchie
I had been walking for three hours when I came to the outskirts of the Village of Suau in the Sepik area of Papua New Guinea. I was about to pass the first thatched hut which was apart from the others, when a man hailed me. He invited me to come to his house. When I arrived he pointed out a short length of tree trunk for me to sit on and asked me to wait while he prepared a Kulau for me to drink. He cut of the top of the green coconut and handed it to me. I drank the copious mildly sweet cool liquid. Having thanked him I continued on to the centre of the village where I was welcomed by a group of people. One of them offered me another kulau. I thanked him and said I had already had one.
He asked me if it was the man in the first house who had given it to me. When I said “Yes”, he said that man offers food to eat and something to drink to everyone who comes along. Then he continued in Pidgin: ”Em I gudpela man tru”. “He is a very good man”. He said it with such sincerity that I have never forgotten. Here was a man who had no financial income sharing what he had with anyone who came along who was hungry or thirsty after a long walk.
The Gospel today challenges us to such generosity. Jesus tells us that if we want to store up true riches for ourselves then we must be ready to part with the riches that this world values. We must be ready to share part of our wealth with the poor around us. Often we find it is the poorest people who are most generous and caring.
Jesus tells the story about a man in charge of finances who used his position to make friends by reducing the amount that the debtors owed. Then Jesus said that materialistic people are wiser than spiritual people because they use the opportunities they have to benefit themselves materially. If we are spiritual people we should benefit ourselves spiritually by using our earthly goods for spiritual benefit by generously giving to the poor.
Jesus becomes an investment advisor. Each of us has our possessions that we want to enjoy – our wealth, time, talents, health, life. But Jesus is advising us to invest them; to use them to benefit others, especially the poor. He doesn’t mean just a token, a dollar in a man’s begging bowl, but a contribution that I will feel as inconvenient so that I will need to deny myself something that I would like. Then the poor will be on my side and will welcome me.
There are those who truly believe that greed is a good principal on which to operate their businesses and perhaps their lifes. We as Christians have an opportunity to witness to generosity and the willingness to give freely from all we have. Then we will surely have friends to welcome us to our eternal life.
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