Net Worth

Measuring our value in terms of love not money

02/18/2018

Mark 1:12-15 The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

             Recently I was talking with a local financial adviser who asked me a question no one has ever asked me before, and I doubt anyone will ever ask me again. He asked: “What is your estimated net worth?” He explained that was a standard question put to potential clients. I had never pondered that question, and my first reaction was to add up all the gift cards I received at Christmas and answer that “My net worth is approximately $75.” However, his question intrigued me so much I decided to look up the net worth of a few famous people, who by the way, do not live off gift cards like me. The singer-entertainer Madonna’s net worth is $550 million, Bill Gates’ net worth is $88.3 billion, and Tom Brady’s net worth is $180 million, which might take the sting out of not winning the Super Bowl.

            But net worth can be calculated in other ways than in money and gift cards. That was the lesson that Ebenezer Scrooge learned in Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Christmas Carol. Who can forget the harrowing visits of three ghosts who carry Scrooge (while wearing his flimsy nightgown) into his past, his present, and finally his future? Scrooge slowly realizes that he has made money into his god. When he returns to his past, the old Scrooge witnesses how his former fiancée, Belle, tried to help the young Scrooge to see his growing attachment to money. She says sadly: “Another idol has displaced me…a golden one…I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off, one by one, until the master passion, Gain, engrosses you” (A Christmas Carol, 554). And it was precisely the purpose of the three ghostly visitors to restore Scrooge’s “nobler aspirations,” in a word, to teach him to measure his net worth not by the gold in his purse but by the love in his heart. By the end of the novel, Scrooge (still sporting his flimsy nightgown) can be seen prancing through the city streets graciously helping those in need, greedy now only for love. Scrooge exclaims, half crying, half laughing: “I don’t know what to do! I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school boy.  I am as giddy as a drunken man” (A Christmas Carol, 579-80) If my financial adviser friend had asked Scrooge what his net worth was, he might have answered that he was the richest man in the world, and his real wealth had little to do with how much money he had.

                Jesus also undergoes a harrowing visit from a spirit, only in his case, the spirit was not there to help but to harm, not to transform but to tempt. In a sense, you could say the evil spirit, Satan, was tempting our Lord to define his net worth by worldly standards rather than heavenly ones. The gospel of Mark only gives us the “cliffs notes” version of this duel in the desert, but Matthew provides the longer, play-by-play commentary. Matthew explains how Satan tries to trick Jesus with three temptations. First turn stones into bread; second, throw himself off the parapet of the temple and have angels catch him; and third, he takes him to a high mountain and offers him the wealth of the world if only he would bend his knee and worship Satan. As we all know, in the Scriptural story, the evil spirit’s traps only spring back on himself. Jesus already knew he was the richest man in the world because he was the Son of God, and he measured his net worth in terms of obedience to his Father’s will, in a word, by love.

               Every year for the forty days of Lent you and I, too, enter into a spiritual duel with the devil. The terms of our contest are no different than they were for Ebenezer and for Jesus: it is a question of defining net worth. In what do we find our peace and our purpose, our sense of self, or as they say in French, “notre raison d’etre” (our reason for being), why were we created? That is why our Lenten sacrifice should closely correspond to whatever we might place too exaggerated a value on. Perhaps we put too much emphasis on money, and hoard money like Scrooge. Maybe vanity is our vice and we spend hours exercising and staring in the mirror. It could be food or drink that dominates our lives and we are always dreaming about our next meal. Climbing the ladder of success can consume some people no matter what heights they reach. Sexual excesses grow to addictive proportions. And so on. Lent is the time to listen to the good spirits that help us prioritize our values so that love sits at the top, and it is the time to quell the voice of the evil spirit who offers us the world at the price of our souls. By the end of these forty days, like at the end of the A Christmas Carol,  we should be able to answer the question “What is your net worth?” a little differently than when we began.

               It is in this context that I want to invite you to consider your stewardship and financial support of our parish. You will receive a letter from me this week with a pledge card asking you prayerfully to consider how much you give to Immaculate Conception, and see, if possible, if you can increase that amount. Our parishioners already give so generously, I am a little embarrassed to even bring this up, and I want to thank you for your past gifts. But supporting our parish financially is an integral part of discipleship (following Jesus), and even more, it is a healthy part of spirituality, which is a matter of listening to the right spirits and not the wrong spirits. I would be derelict in my duty as your pastor if I failed to mention this. And I will do my part by throwing an extra gift card into the collection. The bulletin also has a brief summary of our annual budget so you can see how frugal we are with your gifts.

               If someone asked you, “What is the net worth of this church?” how would you answer them? Would you add the school endowment, our church savings, and our annual budget and then subtract our liabilities to come up with the answer? Or, would you instead count the Catholics in the pews on Sunday, and see how well they love God and their neighbor? “What is your net worth?” is a question that perhaps we should ask ourselves rather regularly.

Praised be Jesus Christ!