SERVING TWO MASTERS

A SERMON FOR THE 14th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Today we are faced with a choice.  Ye cannot serve two masters.   Ye cannot serve God and mammon.   For you will hate the one and love the other, or else love the one and despise the other.  You can’t love both God and mammon. I hope this is a choice you have made already, but even so we should never tire of renewing that choice, and confirming emphatically our love of God and our utter rejection of all that relates to mammon.

First, let’s just take a moment to figure out what is this mammon that Our Lord is talking about.  It’s not a word we use very much these days, except in sermons, is it?  Why didn’t Our Lord just say the Devil?  Ye cannot serve God and the Devil…  Because, let’s face it, that would be just too obvious and a waste of breath—I don’t think too many people actually love the Devil!  The Devil, we imagine, is a monstrous, hideous creature, at the sight of whom we would cringe in terror, or faint away at the very ugliness of him.  No temptations there.  Shall I love God or the Devil?  Let me think about that one… 

So this Mammon that Our Lord talks about must be rather something which would entice us, something which attracts us greatly.  Something, in fact, that we must constantly struggle to avoid being drawn to like iron filings to a magnet, or like flies to a dunghill.  Indeed the word Mammon signifies “The World”, or “the Flesh.  That covers a whole lot of things, attractive, pleasant things, things that we want, or even crave.  

Perhaps because the Devil is so obviously unattractive, Our Lord doesn’t mention him specifically. But if we think about it:  if Mammon is the world and the flesh, who is the Lord of this World but the very Prince of Darkness and Satan?  So in the end, the choice is the same, God or mammon, God or the world, God or Satan.  And if we ignore this warfare, we are lost.

And it is truly warfare.  It is the spiritual warfare of the Christian—loving God and fighting against mammon, the world, the flesh.  In the book of Job, we are told that “the life of man upon earth is a warfare.”  (Job, 7 : 1).  It’s a perpetual warfare that goes on from the cradle to the grave, from the use of reason to our death bed, and we cannot escape the battle.  It is warfare of two irreconcilable enemies.  “What fellowship is there between light and darkness?”  God and mammon each claim the whole of men’s service, and they are both impatient of interference.  God requires our “whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind, our whole strength”.  So, too, does the world.

Let’s face it, this choice between God and Mammon is a choice that all of us have already made, at least I hope so.  The battles that we wage constantly within ourselves may be unseen by the outside world, but we know, do we not, the extent to which we are fighting the world and the flesh.  And for that matter, we know the extent to which we are not fighting the world and the flesh and are surrendering to them.  It is the constant subject of our examination of conscience, it is the tale we tell over and over again in the confessional, as we lose one battle after another.  Don’t be discouraged though, think of the battles you have won.  Let these encourage you to further victories.

In order to live and die in the state of grace, we must constantly be doing battle against our fallen natures.  The only other choice is to give in to our own selfish appetites, our lust for sin and self-satisfaction—and we all know where that leads.  It’s my will or God’s will.  God or Mammon.  There’s no such thing as neutrality in this battle.  Remember, “He who is not with me is against me.”  Sitting on the fence is not an option.  In the last book of Holy Scripture, the Apocalypse, Our Lord instructs the following words to be written to the Church in Laodicea:  “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit thee out of my mouth.”

So let’s renew today our declaration of war.  Let’s remind ourselves that we are resolved, with the whole army of God’s saints and his legions of angels standing with us, to fight on, to paraphrase Churchill, unconquerable, until the curse of sin has been lifted from the brows of men.  The enemy has already attacked, and we have lost many battles already.  Was this for want of trying?  Were we holding up the white flag of surrender too quickly?  We have to meet force with a greater force, and fight the enemies of our soul with all our strength, all our might, all our heart and soul, so that at the end of our lives, we can honestly say, with Saint Paul, that “I have fought the good fight”.   Then can I lay me down in peace at the last, our battle scars still glowing red, but ready now for an eternity of peace with God, that peace reserved for men of good will, Men of God’s Will.

Be sure to pray for the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary in this our battle.  Pray to Our Lady of Victory.  She who is the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the great rejoicing of our nation, who hath done manfully.  She who is fair and comely, yea, and yet terrible as an army with banners set forth in battle array.  Be true to your Rosary, remember the great victory those prayers gave to us against the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto.  The battle for our soul is a greater battle than that.  There is more at stake.  No one can afford to lose this battle.

Fight the good fight!  Our Lady of Victory, pray for us.