Tell me, what belongs to you?

The Bible provides many wonderful examples of how one should lead their life to achieve eternal salvation.

Today I read the story of a poor man, Lazarus, covered with sores, sitting outside of a rich man’s house hoping to eat some of the crumbs that had fallen from a rich man’s table.

These two men would eventually die. Lazarus was welcomed to heaven while the rich man was castigated to hell. He pleads for help but is denied it because of his greed on earth. He asks that someone be sent to warn his five remaining brothers on earth. He is told that they have the laws of Moses to guide them. If they can’t follow Moses’ laws what would make them listen to anything else? he’s asked.

Look around at today’s world and what do you see? There are many rich and there still exists tremendous amount of poverty – even in a country blessed with the abundance that America has. How many people have read the story above and just passed it off as some fairy tale? If you really stop and think about it, you should come to the conclusion that it’s not a bible story but reality.

Stop and ask yourself the question of, “Who gave you what you have?” If your answer is anything else but God, then go back and continue to live in YOUR bible story.

A monk by the name of St. Basil who lived in the fourth century made the following comments while preaching against wealth:

Tell me, what belongs to you? From whom did you receive everything that you carry through this life? … Did you not come out of your mother’s womb naked? And won’t you also return to the earth naked? (Job 1:21) From whom did you get your present goods? If you answer: by chance, you are an ungodly person who refuses to know his creator and to thank his benefactor. If you agree that you got them from God, then tell me why you received them.

Is God unjust in sharing out unequally the goods that are necessary for life? Why do you have an abundance and that person there is destitute? Is it not solely so that one day you might receive the reward for your kindness and your disinterested management, while the poor person will attain the crown promised to patience?... The bread that you are keeping belongs to the person who is starving; the coat that you are concealing in your trunks belongs to the person who is naked… Thus, you are committing as many injustices as there are people whom you could help.

There are many who have shared their wealth but even there the Bible gives us the story of the widow when asked to give gave a small amount in comparison to the rich person. Jesus pointed out that He valued the small amount that the widow gave much more that what the rich person gave because the small amount the widow gave was taken from what she needed to survive. The larger amount given by the rich person only came from what was superfluous to him.

If we could only learn from this and share with the poor the God given abundance that many of us have.