Things or people.  What is most important to us?  Now, most of us would very quickly look at that choice and say right away that of course people are more important to me.  However, if we were to give that question honest reflection and make an honest evaluation of our lives would it really show that we are “people” persons?  How can we make that determination and get an honest read on our lives?  A good indication of what is important to us is what we spend our time and energy on.  Do I spend my time and energy working to obtain more possessions or do I spend my time and energy working on my relationships with others?  Do I use people to get more things or do I use the things that I have to strengthen the relationships I have with others and to serve others?  Do I spend more time thinking about how I can appease my desire for material pleasures or do I spend my time thinking about how I can have deeper and more meaningful relationships with others in my life?  All of us could benefit from an honest assessment of our lives in this way.

     We see a lot of examples in our society today about our obsessions with things and possessions and that many of us measure our worth based upon our possessions.  We give a lot of attention to people who have a lot of possessions.  In our troubled economic times we see how our spending on things and possessions has placed a lot of our relationships with people at risk.  We place ourselves in debt to obtain overpriced houses and cars and our family relationships suffer because of our choices.  We live with the illusion that these things and possessions will make us happier and increase the quality of our lives.  It even seems like the public servants of our day who are elected to serve the good of their constituents spend more time working on their pension plans, salaries and acquisitions than they do in serving the people who they represent.  In response to all of this we hear Jesus caution us today in the gospel with a simple truth, “One’s life does not consist of one’s possessions.”

     God enters into our world as the Incarnate Word Jesus who lives among us and comes to reveal to us the true meaning and value of life.  Jesus lives among us as one without possessions.  Jesus tells those who wish to follow him that “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” and that true discipleship is not about possessions.  Being a disciple of Jesus is not a career path that will lead to riches and a life of leisure and material pleasures.  There is a saying in our society that the one who dies with the most “toys” wins.  Jesus certainly cautions us against the folly and vanity of that type of thinking.  Our possessions will not guarantee us of a place in God’s kingdom.  Jesus spends his time among us speaking to us and teaching us about love and friendship, about relationships and community and certainly reveals to us that people are what God values above all else.  Every person is of infinite value to God.  Even the poor and the humble, the small and the marginalized are important to God.  “You are worth more than many sparrows,” Jesus tells his disciples about their relationship to God, our Father.  God clearly chooses people over things.

     One of the things that causes the most problems in marriages and families are finances and possessions.  Too often we place the value of things over the value of our relationships with others.  We need to spend more time thinking about our relationships and how we can strengthen the bonds of love that we share with others.  Every day that we are given as a gift is an opportunity to grow in our love and relationship with others.  In the end we will take none of the possessions we have accumulated with us to heaven but we do hope that we will share eternally the joy of love and friendship that we have shared with others in eternal life.  It is clear in the life of Jesus that what really “matters to God” are people not possessions.  We will not be judged on the number of our things but on the quality of love that we have shared with others.  True disciples of Jesus seek to become “rich in what matters to God.”