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Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other. You
cannot serve God and mammon.”
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Coach
Ken Carter's most dramatic, and some say, most important decision as a
coach received national news coverage in 1999. He chose to lock
the school gymnasium, forfeit games, and endanger the team's title
chances because some of his players refused to live up to the terms of
the education contract that the players had freely entered.
He spelled out his reasoning to them: "I see a system
that's designed for you to fail," pointing out that young black men are
80 percent more likely to go to prison than to go to college.
Therefore, he concluded, they were concentrating on the wrong thing.
Education is always more important than sports achievement even
if the community and some of the school administration may feel
otherwise. Coach Carter gave his players and indeed the nation a
lesson about concentrating on what was truly important in life.
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What
is the most important thing in life? Jesus wanted his listeners
to carefully consider the answer they would give. For Jesus,
there was only one thing that was more important than anything else.
He knew human nature, and he knew people's desire for the
pleasurable things in life, and in particular, for riches. The
Aramaic word for "mammon" in Matthew's Gospel is translated to mean
wealth or property. Jesus knew that too many people chose "what
felt good" to be the most important thing in their lives.
Therefore, in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew's collection of
Jesus' most important sayings, Jesus makes it very clear: God is
more important than anything else on earth. There can only be one
master, and it cannot be something that is "passing" like wealth or
temporary happiness. The one master must be God and only what God
directs.
In the movie named after him, Coach Ken Carter reminded the high school young people of Richmond High School, indeed any high school or college, that no matter how talented they may be, a fulfilled life was more important than earthly abilities. Such a fulfilled life would be Jesus' idea of "God" as he distinguished between "God" and "mammon." For Jesus, the fulfilled life was nothing less than a God-filled life, giving God the praise that is God's due, and serving others at the same time. In such a life, riches and the desire for money have a place, but it must always be second place. Too many human beings program their lives for failure. They forget what is most important in life. The things of God must always occupy the highest place in a Christian's life. If a Christian achieves such a goal, there will never be any failure. |
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THOUGHT
Do you think that most Christians choose
God as most important in their lives? Yes or no and why?
PRAYER Good
and gracious God, your Son taught us that we must choose between you or
your earthly creation. Help us truly choose what you want of us,
and give us the grace to overcome our natural desire to have other
things dominate our lives. Be with us, we pray.
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |