A few weeks ago, Emmanuel wrote me asking an excellent question. It seems that he went to church on Sunday (a Catholic Mass) and was shocked by some comments made by the priest during the homily. I must admit that I was also shocked when I read them and decided to answer them in my blog in case somebody else heard similar ideas.
The topic was trust in God. The comments were: "one who trusts in God is a glorious person, but damned is the one who trust in others, because one can only trust God. Happy the poor, the hungry and the less fortunate, because in the future he or she will be wealthy. But woe the rich and the people who receive praise from others."
These words, Emmanuel, are a bit related to the sermon on the mountain, but maybe the way it was explained was unclear.
Trusting God is a blessing because God never fails. God is the only one that is forever with us unconditionally. That does not mean that we should not trust one another. Actually, the foundation of any relationship is trust. Just look at what is happening in our government today. No one trusts any one else. This mistrust turns into self-righteousness, and this in turn becomes anger and eventually violence.
The poor, Jesus said, are blessed, because they know that everything they have comes from God and is a gift. The poor in spirit, even if they are millionaires, know that whatever they have is a gift to be used for the common good and not to be abused and to fill them with contempt for others and feelings of superiority.
When the rich are not grateful for their wealth and instead of using it for good they allow themselves to be controlled by GREED, COMPETITION, NARCISSISM, ETC., they are indeed very poor, sad people without identity other than what they have. They go through life unaware of who they are and measure their worth by possessions.
I think this may be what the priest tried to say. I hope you and any one who reads these comments find them helpful.
