As Catholics, our main goal in life is to find ourselves and our God given talents,. We are to embrace them and make a difference in the world, to make as great an impact as we can in order to work towards a world that is in Gods likeness. We learned from a young age to honor the one and only Lord and honor our mother and father. We learned not steal or commit adultery. As we grow older we learn the other commandments and become able to understand the greater meaning of His message of how to live. We identify our sins and work to eliminate them and many of the corrupt actions of our institutions on our society. Although we may have shortcomings, we actively pursue a life of improving ourselves and being kind to others.
Even if one follows the word of the Lord and tries to steward His message, one may not gain entrance to the Kingdom of heaven. Often what stands in our way is our personal worldly possessions. There is both a simple and complex reasoning to this conundrum. We lose sight of the important things in life with the overabundance of possessions and wealth. These worldly possessions stand in the way of one choosing to follow God. In today’s society one is bombarded by messages of consumerism, supporting the idea that things have a value past their price, or that these things alone can bring one’s happiness. The complexity of this argument comes into play when you evaluate that being wealthy is sometimes sinful. It can prevent one from gaining eternal life. The problem is the flawed social institutions. In order to accumulate wealth one must use these social institutions, which depends on the exploitation of the poor. In order to gain wealth, one learns to take advantage of these institutions and in doing so form...
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...the possibility of everlasting life, and joy. We in turn receive far more than the wealth we gave, we do not attain a ephemeral blast of joy when a trophy is handed to us, or a crowd of 23,000 chants our victory, but rather we get an eternal happiness, an everlasting and unyielding euphoria in he Kingdom of God in reward for out training, we get the greatest gift imaginable, better than anything tangible. We become able to receive God’s abundant love and in return for our hard work and perseverance, abundant joy in his Kingdom, Heaven.
Although it hard to implement the message is simple; give unto others you riches, you will receive far more in this act then you could ever accumulate in capital. For when you open you hands to God, and his people God will bless you with his most precious gift, he will work miracles within you and truly give you,” More for less”.
meant much more. It included a love of G-d and doing the will of G-d as well as
Leviticus 25:14 (NLT) states, “And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another.” The Bible states that we should buy and sell from one another, which in turn would entail money and profit. Again, God’s attributes can be found in this process: "honesty, faithfulness to our commitments, fairness, and freedom of choice." (Grudem, 2003, p.37). By making a profit, one is increasing God’s resources. Money and profit provides opportunities to glorify God by providing to charity, giving to the church, and expanding our stewardship. However, if we only seek good for ourselves when buying and selling and making dealings with money and profit, our hearts can be filled with greed. Some sellers have such excessive prices that it robs the buyer. The seller’s profits become great, but the buyer’s money is depleted. This is evil in respect to business transactions, profit and
In Proverbs 14:31, it says, “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.” If we love God, we will be good to the poor. If we do no, we are not only reproaching the poor, but we also reproaching God. In Matthew 7:15, it says “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” It is bad to have the appearance of sanctity and innocence, when the heart is, in fact, evil. According to Aristotle, the highest good is a final end: it is desired for its own sake and not for the sake of anything else. It is also self-sufficient: it is enough in isolation; nothing more is needed. This could not be gold because wealth is not desired for its own sake, but as a means to other ends. Neo-Platonists say “The One” is the self-caused source of all being (God) and to be in the pursue for material things is to be directed away from “The One” and this is thus bad because you are furthering yourself away from God. That is not Christian like to further yourself away from your one and only
For this wicked custom has so taken root everywhere among those who bear the Christian name, and this pernicious doctrine is everywhere so settled and established as though by public law, that men purposely bring up their children even from the cradle with excessive carelessness and laxity. (Celano, 1:1, http://www.indiana.edu/~dmdhist/francis.htm) These opening lines show just how much opulence (and by opulence the means to gain it wealth) were important to people of the era. That like now, the idea of too much money can lead to the idea of sloth and other poor morals. Another important phrase that connects the importance of money/wealth to the period is the idea of the “Hidden Treasure” that Francis speaks of when discussing the kingdom of heaven. (Celano, 3:7-8, http://www.indiana.edu/~dmdhist/francis.htm) In likening the kingdom of heaven to something as material and with such high monetary value as gold it
Jesus also preached about God and money. “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” (Matthew 6:24). Our society today is consumed with money; how to make money and how to get more money. Jesus was against living in favor of money. If one ...
“Many people today are calling for modern religion, and specifically Christianity, to be re-imbedded in the cosmos, so that religion might become a real force in providing the ethical and spiritual energy for the critical task of reversing the degradation of the Earth”, (Vincent Rossi 05, p4). The Catholic subculture is one of the oldest subculture I have known seen my childhood. From my personal study from school, the Catholic subculture has a body of organization that devoted their live to serve God. During my interview with Tony Haas, Director of Liturgy, Most Precious Blood Catholic Church, understand that one have to go to school for about four to five years to become a priest. The catholic subculture see them
Many have heard the popular phrase “Money is the root of all evil,” derived from 1 Timothy 6:10 which states “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (NIV). However, this verse does not blame money itself for evil, but the love of money - greed. One’s attitude toward money could certainly be considered a characteristic of one’s values and ethical/unethical beliefs that influence ethical judgment (Vitell, Singh, & Paolillo, 2007). Greed, corruption, deceit, and other unethical attitudes can lead one away from biblical principles. Proverbs 16:8 states; “Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice” (NIV). As Christians, and business professionals, we must place focus not on worldly riches such as
A penny saved may be a penny earned, just as a penny spent may begin to better the world. Andrew Carnegie, a man known for his wealth, certainly knew the value of a dollar. His successful business ventures in the railroad industry, steel business, and in communications earned him his multimillion-dollar fortune. Much the opposite of greedy, Carnegie made sure he had what he needed to live a comfortable life, and put what remained of his fortune toward assistance for the general public and the betterment of their communities. He stressed the idea that generosity is superior to arrogance. Carnegie believes that for the wealthy to be generous to their community, rather than live an ostentatious lifestyle proves that they are truly rich in wealth and in heart. He also emphasized that money is most powerful in the hands of the earner, and not anyone else. In his retirement, Carnegie not only spent a great deal of time enriching his life by giving back; but also often wrote about business, money, and his stance on the importance of world peace. His essay “Wealth” presents what he believes are three common ways in which the wealthy typically distribute their money throughout their life and after death. Throughout his essay “Wealth”, Andrew Carnegie appeals to logos as he defines “rich” as having a great deal of wealth not only in materialistic terms, but also in leading an active philanthropic lifestyle. He solidifies this definition in his appeals to ethos and pathos with an emphasis on the rewards of philanthropy to the mind and body.
Conwell puts having wealth into perspective. Conwell says that gaining wealth is a good thing. If a person has the opportunity to get wealthy, it can be there way to help the people in poverty. Money is not sinful until a person decide what they want to do with it. If that person decides to help others with his money, then having great wealth is a good thing. But on the opposing side, if a man keeps all of his money to himself, then that is a sin. God gave that person the opportunity to have wealth and they were selfish with God’s blessing. That money should go to people who need it. God could have given the opportunities to one of the less fortunate people, then how would the person who was selfish feel? Sure, money may feel great on this earth, but does God care about how much wealth we attain in our life, or does he care about how we used our wealth? If a man shows another man how to attain wealth instead of just giving the other man wealth, then he will be able to live on his
The common goal of Christianity is to spread faith and good morals, and we give inspiration. We try to be a good influence in the world and try to make an impact on people lives. Our ambition is to be like God. Everyone is not perfect, so we also try to improve ourselves as well as others. Another goal is to be
The authors examine scripture from various places in the bible to make their case that the bible is full of economic advice. Additionally, the authors state (2010), “for centuries, cultures have looked to the Bible as a rich resource that has helped people think about the way morality and economics come together.” (Hill & Rae, 2010, p. 23) The author’s most basic understanding is that morality and economics are intertwined, and in order to fully understand economics one must understand the bibles economic standards. The authors laid out seven biblical teachings on issues such as economics, wealth creation, poverty, injustice, and assets throughout the book.
Worldly riches are physical possessions that entice us to abandon God and try to live a happy and successful life without God. Worldly riches can also be referred to as sin. God states that a “worldly riches is” their entire “mind” (lime 27). This quote explains that Inside of people’s minds they have already come to the assumption that worldly riches bring happiness to their life instead of believing in God. Death explains that Everyman’s “mind is on fleshly lusts and his treasure, and great pain it shall cause him to endure before the Lord Heaven-King” (line 82-84). This quote form Death explains that in Everyman’s mind he truly loves his worldly possessions and that he will experience much pain from the orders of
The author indicates great qualities in regards to economics and wealth. He talks about how the bible states individuals should have qualities of a strong work ethic, and other entrepreneurial characteristics such as initiative and perseverance. He also highlights as the main elements of a biblical approach to economics are: 1. The materials in the world are good for man because GOD created it, but the love for it leads to sin. 2. GOD owns the world’s economic resources and humans are stewards of the resources. 3. The wealth creation process is connected to the dominion GOD gave us and the fact that we are made in his image. 4. You should work as you work for GOD, because you and your work are ordained by the Lord. 5. If you work you are responsible for taking care of yourself and your family. 6. The working community is
The Catholic community in the U.S. is composed today by people from different parts of the world. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, millions of people, especially from Europe, came to this country to settle their homes and start a new life or simply to take advantage of the opportunities that the new world gave them. Among those immigrants, a number of Catholics looked for continuing living their faith in their new home. In this essay, I want to focus mainly on two groups: Germans and Italians.
Class notes. Man’s Desperate Need of Righteousness and God’s Glorious Provision of Righteousness. Faith Christian University. Orlando, Florida. August 2011.