THE DANGER OF WEALTH AND TAINTED MONEY

THE DANGER OF WEALTH AND TAINTED MONEY

By Fr. Felix (African Times Guest Writer)

To the parable of the Crafty Farm-Manager

various sayings about money and the use of

money are added with the phrase often used by

Luke when he adds on a saying, ‘And so I tell

you this’.

They are indeed linked together by the word

‘money’ in verses 9, 11 and 14. This Hebrew

word mammon is found frequently in the Dead

Sea Scrolls, as is also the expression ‘children

of light’ (verse 8). Jesus is using contemporary

language.

The expression, literally ‘mammon of iniquity’

indicates more the distorting effect of money

than that the money must have been acquired

by evil means.

The first counsel (verse 9) repeats the theme so

frequent in Luke, of the danger of wealth and

the need to use it wisely by sharing it with those

in need.

The second (verses 10-12) is the lesson taught

more dramatically by the parable of the talents

(Matthew 25.14-30) or the pounds (Luke

19.12-27), with the implication that you can’t

expect someone who is generally untrustworthy

to be trustworthy even about things that really

matter.

The third counsel (verse 13) underlines that one

can have only one real passion in life: do you

dream about money every night? This final

lesson is rounded off and generalised by a little

exchange with an avaricious group of Pharisees

who presented themselves as scrupulous about

legal observance when their real passion was

money.

Not all Pharisees were such, but scrupulous

observance could certainly be a cloak for

avarice.

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