Mission Sts Sergius and Bacchus

What is the Root of All Evil?
A Reflection for Sunday July 20th 2008
By Rev. Fr. Robert Johnnene OFD
Mission Saints Sergius & Bacchus/Franciscans of Divine Mercy
www.missionstsergius.org

We often hear the expression “Money is the root of all evil” and sometimes it seems that it is very true.All we have to do is look at the current situation in the world and more explicitly in the United States and ponder if that is not the case.
In reality the root of all evil is NOT money but man’s DESIRE FOR POWER and symbols of status; greed and the seeking of great wealth to increase one’s status in the eyes of powerful people, or jealousy over losing control over people because of a loss of status in the world of finance is the actual cause of the evil that often occurs.
Money is an obvious measure of one’s status, so it’s easy to confuse the two.The actual statement from which this expression came is; “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” and is found in Timothy, 6:10.
Even some Religious denominations have succumbed to this desire for money not for humanitarian use but for status and the symbols of status and power.
This past week we have seen something we have not seen since the depression in 1934, long lines of people rushing a bank to withdraw their savings because the bank had collapsed. We have also seen people loosing their homes due to foreclosure because of the practices of unscrupulous banks whose only goal was to increase their stock value and the dividends to their stockholders and obscene salaries of CEOs. Because of the actions of the business tycoons and greedy politicians millions of our low income and elderly citizens are suffering significantly, which is most certainly an intrinsic evil.
The reading from the book of Wisdom 12 for this Sunday talks about being kind to your brothers and sisters in Christ, which is every individual on the face of the earth. “You are mild in judgment, you govern us with great lenience, for you have only to will, and your power is there. By acting thus you have taught a lesson to your people how the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men” It is sad that our government leaders do not follow this kind of governing.Kindness, Compassion, Justice, Mercy, and Charity are virtues that often seem to be in short supply in our world today. They have been replaced with the notion that we should live with the concept of “obscene salaries of CEOs”
In August 2004 Andrew Greeley wrote in the Chicago Sun Times; “The most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless and untrammeled greed. Greed caused the disgraceful corporate scandals that fill our newspapers. Greed is responsible for crooked cops and crooked politicians. Greed causes the constant efforts to destroy unions that protect basic worker rights. Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and in effect taken it away from the poor.”
Unfortunately things have not changed but only gotten worse. The oil companies continue to earn exorbitant profits which have caused the prices for gasoline and heating oil to almost double in the last year. Coupled with the fact that many of them hold the rights to explore for oil on vast tracts of land in and off shore the US that they are not using. This is an prime example of Greed causing great evil because it is hurting those who can least afford to be hurt, the poor, aged and ill.In his comments in 2004 Andrew Greeley went on to say; “No one said during the bizarre deification of President Reagan that he taught us that greed is good and that we should feel good about our greedy country. Greed is the reason that the country is being run by the insurance, pharmaceutical, weapons and petroleum industries. Greed causes worldwide sex slavery of women and children.”
This situation has only gotten worse in the last four years. One of the results of all this is that agencies like food banks, the Salvation Army and churches, our included, that attempt to relieve the suffering of the poor, aged and ill have experienced a great drop is their donations which have resulted in their inability to help all those who need it.
The time is now for every person who claims to be a God fearing follower of Jesus Christ to look deeply within themselves and seek the Holy Spirit’s help is making the changes necessary in ourselves to eliminate this source of evil from our mindset and help us to be more mindful of the needs of others.Today’s reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans affirms that; "The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. … and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well” from Romans 8:26 - 27
Let us rid ourselves of self indulgence and instead begin to find way to be charitable, compassionate , forgiving and most importantly, True followers of Christ by living as followers of Christ and loving, caring for our neighbor ( every human on the face of the earth) as Christ loved and cared for all He encountered. AMEN