04/12/2021

The teaching and the care of the "lost sheep" is to be performed without charge. The 12 were clearly told this. The Church has always also taught that the labourer is worthy of his hire. St Paul supported himself by tent making. The first Christians even collected money to support others who lived far away. We are not to make our lives a quest for wealth as we cannot serve "both God and Mammon". For centuries "tithing was a norm".

Our lives are all lived in the environment in which we were born and as time has passed material wealth has grown. Our Church too lives in the world and it seems right for her to care for the things created and made by our predecessors. All material things, however, will all fade away. No matter how careful and devoted to buildings we are they will all crumble. Preserving and repairing a Cathedral is a task that can easily absorb our time and fill our waking hours. Restoring a damaged manuscript or painting  also requires great concentration. But none of these tasks are required to bring us to holiness.

Church buildings are now a drain on the resources of a dwindling Church and worrying about them has grown to dominate our teachers and their overseers. We cannot let the the cares of this world even the legitimate ones, interfere with our striving after our true home. Consider the lilies of the field.

Dear God turn our thoughts always to the things of heaven and let us not get so absorbed in the things of this world that we neglect what is good for our own souls.