God, Money, and Lilies of the Field

Matthew Chapter 6 Has Several Gems for Catholic Business Owners

When was the last time you considered your role model in business, the Lilies of the Field?

Welcome back to Catholic Founders. It’s been a week since our last post. I expect to get back to a more frequent cadence in October after my batch of upcoming travel is concluded.

In the meantime, if you’d like to contribute, feel free to reach out with your idea. More than happy to discuss.

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In the Traditional rite, this past Sunday’s Gospel was taken from Matthew Chapter 6. This is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount.

The chapter addresses several things, including almsgiving, prayer, how to pray the Lord’s Prayer, how to fast, and towards the end, treasure in heaven vs on earth, the light of the body, God and money, and finally dependence on God.

This final part is where we get the lilies of the field passage. I’m a big fan of the lilies version, but the bible I’m reading out of now says ‘wild flowers’. Let’s consider them lilies.

I want to focus on the last parts of this chapter. Treasure, God, Money, Light of the Body, and Dependence on God.

Treasure in Heaven

Matt 6: 19-21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth or decay destroys, nor thieves break in an d steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

This one is pretty straightforward, right!?

If you’re focusing on your earthly treasures, you’re setting yourself up to be tied to this world. That is where your heart will be. But, if you focus your energy on your heavenly treasures, that is where your heart will be.

Of course, you may have early treasures, but truly examine your attachment to these early treasures. If you have a hard time with the idea of letting them go, you’re too attached to them and must further examine yourself.

Imagine this.

Later today, you lose everything. Your business/job, your house, all your savings and investments. Your insurance won’t reimburse you either. You and all your family are suddenly out on the streets. You’ve even lost your car.

Assuming you have been diligent and worked hard, and this situation still came upon you, how would you view it? It’s certain you’d keep working hard to remedy the situation. But in the meantime, you’d have to beg for help from your family or friends. You’d need a place to stay, a job, and some time to get back on your feet.

While this is unpleasant (of course), think deeply about your feelings in this situation. Remember, we are assuming you worked hard and that this still happened. It must, therefore, be a gift God is giving you.

A gift!? You might exclaim. How is this a gift? It’s a gift because God never gives us things that are bad for us. They might seem bad, but that’s because we do not understand His infinite goodness to teach us lessons for the future.

In this example, if you are very upset because you have nothing, you are attached to the treasures of this world. You might disagree and say, ‘Silas, no! I’d be upset because my family would be on the street.’ Okay, that's a fair point, but again, this doesn’t change the fact that you were working hard, and now God has taken it all away from you.

Yes, we must be providers, but God is the ultimate provider. We lie to ourselves when we think that we are the true providers for our families. God is and always has been the provider for us and for our families.

It seems radical, but it’s actually the opposite. What’s radical, what’s totally bananas, is thinking that all of our outcomes are in our hands. That we can just muscle it through and it will be alright. That we are the ones who make things happen independent of any support.

Ha! We know this is not true. Look at your life. How ‘lucky’ have you been? Think about all the times you had good fortune. It wasn’t just because you worked hard. Your hard work might have increased your exposure to ‘luck’, but we all know that God brought things your way when He did.

So, why this attachment to the earthly treasures?

Now that you have examined your heart, ask yourself this.

Am I truly seeking first the kingdom of God — am I seeking to store up treasures in heaven?

If the answer is no, then pray for God to give you the grace to desire this more than anything else. This is not something you can obtain by your own will, either. God must give us this grace - and He will. So long as we ask for it.

Once this feeling of longing for heaven and trust in God begins to take root, we will start to see that worrying about earthly things is silly. God will provide what He deems sufficient for us as long as we do our part to cooperate with His Will.

Then, the thought of losing all your earthly possessions will not bother you. It will not haunt you. It will just feel like a gift from God to teach you something for the future.

Most of you are still wildly skeptical but trust me; there is a point you can reach where this is the case. There is a point where the thought of the worst situation will not bother you. Practically speaking, there will likely be stress and anxiety. But, the more stress and anxiety we experience, the less we are fully trusting in God.

Okay, let’s move on to the next point.

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The Light of the Body

Matt 6: 22, 23
The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.

On the surface, you may think this has nothing to do with what we just said; on the contrary!

I believe this demonstrates the most important thing to us. Where we look, where we focus — that is where we will go. Just before we discussed our aim of treasure in heaven. While Jesus refers to the heart, the heart pursues what the eye aims for.

The next point is about serving God or Mamon as our master. It’s all about focus and intention.

We must, therefore, be intentional with what we look at, focus on, and pursue.

A helpful exercise is to examine the motive we feel behind what we naturally focus on. If it’s our career, what is the motive there? We often say it’s to provide for our family, but is it? Perhaps it’s insecurity and worry that we won’t be taken care of. Or maybe we are seeking prestige and recognition — thus feeding our pride.

The best part about all of this is — we can redirect our attention. That’s the point of free will. We were given a will to be able to direct our attention. First, let us direct our attention to God, acknowledge that we are incapable of the smallest good (there is a passage about this, but I’m struggling to find it), and then ask God to give us the desire for heaven. To help us have the desire to become saints.

If each day we renew that quest and ask God to give us this grace, we will be started in the right direction. It will be challenging. There are so many things we are attached to that we don’t recognize until push comes to shove.

Alright — next point.

God and Money

Matt 6: 24
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 mamon.

In many ways, this is just a continuation of what has been said already.

It is not possible to be truly devoted to two masters. So, knowing what we know, that heaven is the ultimate goal of our existence, it’s a no-brainer. We must serve God first at all costs. We must be fully dedicated to serving Him as our master. The money and provisions will follow to whatever extent God desires to give us.

Here we go into the really meaty part of this chapter.

Dependence on God: The Lilies