Liturgy: Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost - You Cannot Serve God and Mammon
"Whoever is the slave of riches is subject to a hard and wicked master. Entirely at the mercy of his passions, he is under the tyranny of the devil."
St. Augustine continues:
Certainly he does not love him, for who can love the devil? But all the same he endures him. On the other hand he does not hate God, for this, no man's conscience will let him do, but he despises Him.
“If anyone wishes to love God and to contrive never to offend Him, let him not think that he can serve two masters. Thus must you think about the Lord's goodness, and seek Him in simplicity of heart. Therefore, I tell you not to have any superfluous anxiety as to what you will eat and what you will put on, lest perhaps, without seeking superfluities, the heart may become double, and in pursuing what is necessary, your intention may be turned aside to seek your own interests rather than the advantage of your neighbor."
Before all, then, let us seek the kingdom of God, and His justice and glory (Gospel, Communion). It is He who sends His angels to deliver those who serve Him (Offertory), and who upholds our weak human nature, for without this divine assistance it would surely fail (Gospel). It is the Eucharist which wins for us the favor of Almighty God (Secret).
Let us love, above all things, to pray in the courts of the Lord (verse of the Introit), and to go there to sing the praises of God our Savior (Alleluia). Then let us look after our temporal affairs but without being unduly anxious about them. Such solicitude would be an outrage to our heavenly Father who loves His children, and who lets them want for nothing provided they seek His glory before all else.
Source: Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, OSB, 1945, adapted and abridged.
