From the Friars: The Jesus Retirement Plan

From the Friars: The Jesus Retirement Plan

Back in 2005 our community had a house in San Marcos, Nicaragua. That summer a group of lay Franciscans came down from the United States to build a chapel and some simple homes for a poor community there. It was an exhausting but enjoyable experience for everyone. How beautiful to see the rich “gringos” having fun and working together with the “Pinoleros.” Returning from taking the part-time missionaries to the airport, I found a line of about fifty people waiting outside our friary. The word had spread that the Franciscans were building free houses.

People building a house raising a wall. Volunteers. Habitat

Walls being raised by volunteers, by City of Marietta, GA – CC BY 2.0, Link

Over the next three years the team of friars, volunteers and benefactors built and repaired many houses. A good friend ran the operation and had a system where he could build a small two-bedroom home, no indoor plumbing, for about $1500. This comes to mind hearing again today the Gospel parable of the rich man with a bountiful
harvest. Jesus pulls no punches, calling him a fool who stored up treasure for himself and was not rich in what matters to God. This should make us uncomfortable.

Jesus says elsewhere: “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” (Lk 16:9) This is not to say that money earned through honest work is unrighteous, but we are all cooperating with injustice each day, often without realizing it. Our morning coffee may come from workers making a very unjust wage. The Lord does not expect us to solve the world’s problems, but to live for His Glory and the good of His people, not me first.

Most people are not called to sell their possessions and give the money to the poor. Yet Our Lord says, “anyone who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:33) An important principle of Catholic Social Teaching is the Universal Destination of Goods. This means our right to ownership must be understood within the context of the truth that the goods of the earth belong to all God’s children.

By being generous distributors of God’s gifts (Cf. 1 Pet 4:10), we store up treasure in Heaven and become rich in what matters
to Him.

— Fr. Peter