“No one can serve two masters”
“The sinner indeed walks the face of the earth in two directions: externally, his actions seem to by holy, but inwardly his thoughts are worldly.” [1] We cannot trick God. We might be doing everything correctly on the outside by going through the holy actions, while on the inside we are still worldly in our thoughts, desires, and imaginations. Complete surrender of one’s self means living out the greatest commandment to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” [2] Christ says that this is the first and greatest commandment. If we truly live this out, our actions will declare to all that we are not pagan, that we do not worship the creature or created things, but instead worship the Creator of all.
“The Gospel again puts us on our guard against the attractiveness of earthly goods. First it affirms that no man can simultaneously serve two masters, God and Mammon, any more than one can follow the two roads at the same time: the one leading to the kingdom of God and the other to worldly pleasure. Anyone giving himself to God must have the courage to give himself entirely, with no regrets, no backward glance – however fleeting – at the things of the world. The soul who, after choosing the path of perfection, does not go forth generously, with its whole heart, will never be contented. It will neither experience the joy of knowing that it belongs entirely to God, nor will it have the satisfaction of being able to follow all the attractions of the world; the first will be impeded by the soul’s unfaithfulness, the second by the fear of God which it still possesses. Such a soul is unhappy, torn between the two and in continual struggle with itself. But what keeps it from seeking the kingdom of God with its whole heart? Jesus gives us the answer in today’s Gospel; too much solicitude [care, concern or anxiety] about material things, about ease and security in this present life.” [3] If a soul is too concerned or anxious about material things they will not focus on the state of their soul. During the Eucharistic Prayer, at Mass we pray to be “safe from all distress.” “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” [4] Padre Pio said, “Pray, Hope and don’t worry.” Being free from sin and safe from all distress go together. It is sin, especially in the attachment to worldly things, which causes us much of the anxiety that we experience.
Who are the two masters whom we cannot serve alike? God and Mammon. Mammon is the Syrian term for riches, and in the Middle Ages, Mammon was commonly regarded as a deity. Thus we see that those who serve Mammon, serve their desire for riches and all the other goods and pleasures of the world. We cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time because each commands lifestyles that are diametrically opposed to each other. For example, in Psalm 51:17 we hear “A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” If we serve God, we must humble ourselves before Him. To serve mammon, instead of humbling ourselves, is a choice to raise our base desires to a place of prominence in our lives. We cannot serve both, one requires us to sacrifice our desires and the other requires us to sacrifice everything for our desires.
“God prohibits usury, theft, deceit, etc.; while on the other hand,to which the desire for wealth impels us. God commands that we keep holy Sundays and holy days, and devote them to His service; the desire for riches tempts man to omit religious worship and to seek temporal gain; it disturbs him even in church, so that he is only present with his body, but absent in mind with his temporal goods and business.” [5]
When is a time that you have been present in body at Mass but absent in mind?
Why can’t we live for the world and for God? We cannot walk two paths at once. This is the where we see contradiction so many times in the Christian life. A person rejects sin and worldly things while at Church, youth group, etc., but then rejects Christ and the Church while they are engaged in the other activities of their life. We cannot be on two roads at the same time. So we choose one road while in certain places and around certain people then we choose another road while at other places and around other people.
Why is this a bad thing? Our Christian life then becomes based on where we are and who we are around and is in fact not following God but rather the dictates of people and places. This will only bring about continual struggle, as a person won’t let themselves fully love or be loved by God and at the same time will not fully embrace the good of the world because they are semi committed to God and would feel guilty to fully indulge. When we begin drifting in and out of following our faith, it can be harder to find our way back on the way of Christ. It can also be easier to fall prey to the Devil. This split between faith and life is a serious sin and is scandalous to non-Christians. “This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.” [6]
Why is it easy, perhaps easier, to seek the things of the body rather than the soul? Why is it easier to seek the material rather than the spiritual? We have what is called concupiscence. Concupiscence refers to the “human appetites or desires, which remain disordered due to the temporal consequences of original sin.” [7] The correct order is to “seek first the kingdom of God.” Concupiscence causes us instead to seek first the disordered pleasures of the flesh. Due to original sin, humans are drawn toward whatever the imagination portrays as pleasant and away from whatever it portrays as painful. However, that is not enough because spiritual life demands sacrifice and even pain. We witness the tremendous sacrifice and unthinkable pain in the Crucifixion of Christ and in the deaths suffered by the martyrs. Contrary to that sacrifice, our concupiscence causes us to move away from the call of the gospel and instead embrace the “false promises” [8] and pleasures offered by the world.
Staff Sgt. Giunta is the first living soldier to receive the Medal of Honor (the highest medal given to a soldier) since the Vietnam War. The report tells of his bravery on the battlefield. The story recalls his complete willingness to sacrifice himself for his friend in the face of certain death. The sacrifice is the greatest witness of a person willing to give up material goods, even the good of life, for a greater good.
Saint John narrows concupiscence down to three main areas: of the flesh (what we do), the eyes (what we want or desire), and the pride of life (our will over God’s will). “For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world.” [9]
Jesus tells us to “look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” [10] Our heavenly Father knows our needs. Do we trust our Father? When we fall into the concupiscence of flesh, eyes and pride of life, we are accepting things that are not from our heavenly Father but rather from the world. These offerings of the world are the very “false promises” that we rejected at our baptism which claimed us as a child of the Father.
How can we battle the threefold concupiscence (flesh, eyes and pride of life)? The Church has given to us the weapon of the evangelical counsels to counter this threefold concupiscence. The evangelical counsels are also called vows. These are taken by religious, but should be practiced by all Christians because they were lived by Jesus.
What are the Evangelical Counsels, the three vows that religious take? The vows are poverty (a detachment from worldly things [11]), obedience (submission to the authority of God [12]) and chastity (Temperance which leads to the unity of the body and soul [13]). These three vows are symbolized in many orders by a rope worn around the waist and by the three knots on the end of the rope hanging down from the waist.
The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who began their work in the Bronx, NY say they are committed to no money (poverty), no honey (chastity) and a boss (obedience). They lead lives with no bling bling (poverty), no sweet thing (chastity) and service to Christ the King (obedience). Poverty is the weapon we use in the battle against concupiscence of the eyes. Our fallen desire is to have so much, to have more rather than be more; poverty removes the ‘so much’ from our lives and allows us to focus on God more. As one of the priests said, “spiritual poverty is not so much about giving up things, but about giving up one’s self.” Obedience is the weapon we use to battle the concupiscence of pride of life. where we choose to do our will and assert our will rather than completely abandon our self to the will of God. Chastity is the weapon we use to battle the concupiscence of the flesh. If we live only for sensual pleasure the soul becomes the servant to the body. With chastity there is unity of body and soul in which the body animates the soul, is at the service of the soul.
“The Gospel [Matthew 6:24-34] which has just been read to us is the condemnation of the concupiscence of the eyes – that is, attachment to the goods of this world which, of themselves, are good but in name and appearance.” [14] In today’s culture, images and many worldly things are constantly bombarding our eyes. Those who can appeal to our eyes, have access to our affections, our money, our time, and our desires. “Guard your eyes, since they are the windows through which sin enters the soul.” [15] Sin does not enter us only through our eyes, but what we allow to enter through our eyes affects our whole person, both the body and the soul. “Jesus alludes to the danger of the conscience being deformed when he warns: ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if you eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’ (Mt. 6:22-23)” [16] In what ways can we become desensitized to sin through our eyes? An example of this is how media has become very sensual and violent over the years. It has been said that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. If, on the other hand, you put the frog in lukewarm water and slowly turn up the water to the point of boiling, the frog will happily stay in the water even though it means its death.
Are the evangelical counsels, the three vows, only for the religious? How can lay people live out these vows each day? The evangelical counsels are not only for the religious since “communion with God is possible in every state of life. There must be one condition observed, and that is, the soul must be detached from every tie that could keep her from going to God. The religious breaks these ties by his three vows, which are in direct opposition to the triple concupiscence of fallen nature; the layman, who, though he is living in the world, desires to be what his Creator would have him be, must, without the aid of real separation which the religious makes, be quite as completely detached from his own will, and sensuality, and riches, in order that all his intentions and aspirations may be fixed on the eternal home, where his one infinite, loved treasure is.” [17]
What are the ties that we have that keep us from going to God? Detachment from worldly goods is not merely physically. The poor man can still have many attachments to his desires, such as what he would like to have or what he has in his dreams. We must have complete detachment from the things of this world. If we are to embrace Jesus, we must first let go of all that we are holding on to, which includes that which we hold on to with our imagination. In his book, Memory and Identity, Saint Pope John Paul II the Great, says that our identity is based much on our memories, our past. Our memories and experiences of the past can be sinful, and thus hurtful. We must have healing and forgiveness of the past as well as not continue to dwell on the past by recalling sin through our imagination. Many times, although we are forgiven and absolved of sin, in the Sacrament of Confession, we still recall past sins, almost as to relive them.
Blessed Junipero Serra, the founder of many missions and cities on the West coast, had a simple motto. “Always go forward, never look back.” This was a motto that the Israelites could have benefitted from when they were in the desert. When God has saved them from slavery and was leading them to the Promised Land, they made the mistake of continuing to remember and even dwell on the food and experiences they had while they were slaves. Just so, God has led the Christian out of sin and leads us to the promised land of heaven, yet we remember the sins of our past, even if only in our imagination, from when we were in the slavery of sin. The Christian, like the prodigal son, is no longer a slave, but rather a son. Let us behold our dignity as a son and live as a son, rather than dwell on our past as a slave to self and to sin.
What is the result of living just for our self, our will and our desires?
In the movie "Click" Adam Sandler gets total control over his life. This control leads to pursuit of all pleasures, work and everything he thought he wanted. In the pursuit of his will and pleasures, he neglects his family. This final scene shows his regret and the word to his son, it shows the lesson that he learned, “Family comes, first”. He is willing to sacrifice his life, to share this lesson with his son so that his son does not fall into the same mistakes. In our popular culture, movies like Click sometimes side with virtue and family values over materialism and selfishness. These movies, however, rarely go far enough. Rarely do they transcend beyond the surface to where virtue and value comes from – from God. If credit is not given to God, even family, good works and virtue can become a god in and of themselves and we fall into idolatry.
[1] Moral Reflections on Job by Saint Gregory the Great – Office of Readings (8th Sunday of Ordinary Time)
[2] Matthew 22:37
[3] Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D; Divine Intimacy; Section 287.2
[4] The Order of the Mass I; Communion Rite
[5] Fr. Leonard Goffine; The Church’s Year; page 407
[6] Council of Vatican II Documents; The Church in the Modern World; Gaudium et Spes, 43
[7] Catechism of the Catholic Church Glossary – page 871
[8] Rite of Baptism; Roman Rite
[9] 1 John 2:16
[10] Gospel Reading in this Link to Liturgy packet
[11] Catechism of the Catholic Church Glossary – page 894
[12] Catechism of the Catholic Church Glossary – page 889
[13] Catechism of the Catholic Church Glossary – page 870
[14] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B.; The Liturgical Year; Vol. 11, page 338
[15] Saint John Bosco; Paul Thigpen; A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints
[16] Venerable Pope John Paul II the Great; Veritatis Splendor; 63.2
[17] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B.; The Liturgical Year; Vol. 11, page 341