PARISHIONERS: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
HOMILY
There's a story told of two friends who are invited to
a party held at a billionaire's mansion.
One said to the other friend,
"Wow. Look at this place. This guy has everything."
His friend then replied,
"Yes, but I have something he will never have."
Startled by this response, the friend asked,
"What could you possibly have
that this billionaire won't be able to buy?"
He replied, "I have enough,
but I don't think he will ever have enough."
Isn't it true that when we think of happiness,
we think of a bigger house,
buying our dream car or winning a lottery?
It's often having extra things we currently do not have,
that once we have that, that will make us happy.
This is called destination addiction,
the belief that happiness will not arrive
until a particular circumstance changes our lives.
If we think in this way, we can run easily into a danger
of thinking that our happiness depends on external factors
like circumstances and material wealth.
So, in today's Gospel, Jesus teaches us how to be blessed
and how to attain happiness from within.
True happiness is attained not from having
more things of this world,
but first seeking the kingdom of God
and gaining freedom from attachment to wealth and power.
There's an interesting experiment conducted by
a social psychology professor, Paul Piff,
from Berkeley University in California.
Professor Piff brought strangers into the lab in pairs of two
and watched them play the famous board game called Monopoly.
A flip of the coin determined who will be the rich players
and who will be the poorer players.
The rich players got twice as much Monopoly money
to play the game.
They got to roll two dice instead of one,
so they moved the token around the board a lot quicker
and collected twice as much money
when they passed "go."
As you can see, this was clearly a rigged game,
giving one group of players
the upper hand and inevitable success.
The inequalities are almost immediately apparent
to the players.
Within a couple of minutes,
dynamics begin to crystallize.
The rich players started to behave differently.
Rich players became more dominant and rude,
ate more pretzels,
and moving their token around the board game
became louder by smacking the board
with their piece.
They were far more likely to showcase and talk about
how well they were doing,
and to belittle the plight of the poorer players.
They became less compassionate.
These same patterns were observed consistently
over hundreds of different individuals.
When the rich players were asked why they won the game,
not one of them attributed their inevitable success in the game
to the force of luck that randomly got them
that privileged position in the first place.
They believed that they were better players
and they deserved to win.
The interesting thing was that these poor university students
were made to feel rich just in the game,
and they behaved
as if they were rich and powerful in real life.
It became evident that the more Monopoly money
the rich player had,
the less they were inclined to share.
They felt entitled, superior to others,
and became less compassionate.
Being insensitive to the poor
and undermining other people's welfare to get ahead
was the pattern of the rich player.
The conclusion from this study was that
it's not about the people who are rich,
but rather, the experience of being better off than others
seemed to affect everyone in the same way.
Thomas Sowell,
who is an American economist and historian,
once said, "When people get used to preferential treatment,
equal treatment seems like discrimination."
Power and wealth are not the problem,
but getting used to them and using them
for our own personal gain is.
This is because we suffer from a fallen human nature
which leaves us prone to corruption of sin,
especially greed and selfishness.
Today's Gospel is a stark reminder to us
that God has a standard and way of thinking
that is almost entirely the opposite
of how the world thinks and operates.
Things that the world assigns little to no value,
the things the world despises, like being poor and hungry,
being persecuted and hated
for justice and truth and our faith,
are the things that we should value the most.
And that's why God gives the warning to the rich,
who lack compassion and mercy
towards those who are poor and persecuted.
One day, everyone, without exception,
will have to face the judgment seat of God,
to make an account of all our actions.
So, let us not mistake God's patience and mercy
for his weakness.
Many years ago, when I was in university,
I was looking for a song I really liked
that I heard on the radio.
No one seemed to have it, not HMV or Sam the Record Man.
By chance, I found it online.
Online store called CD Baby.
There was a very interesting write-up
about the founder of the company, Derek Sivers.
Back in 1987, Derek was just a struggling musician.
He wanted to sell his own music online, but it proved to be
a very difficult and lengthy process.
So, as luck would have it, his peers pushed him into business
because they also wanted to sell their music online, too.
By 1998, the company Derek founded
became the largest seller of independent music
on the internet, with over $100 million in sales.
So, in 2008, Derek sold his company for $22 million
and created a charitable trust
that will pay him just 5% dividends every year
so he wouldn't have to worry about his finances.
Once he dies, all his money will be paid out to charity,
which would then help with music education.
In one of the interviews, he said,
"The less I own, the happier I am.
"The lack of possessions gives me the priceless freedom
to live anywhere, anytime."
He's learned that having enough was enough.
He found happiness from living a simple life,
freedom from material possessions.
So, as we continue with our Eucharist today,
I pray that we first seek the kingdom of God.
We can then gain freedom from attachment
to the things of this world
so that we can be truly free to love as Christ loves.
In this way, we can use things of this world
to enrich the lives of others,
rather than using other people to enrich our own.
For all those in our Daily TV Mass prayer intentions book,
we pray to the Lord.
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