Philippians 4:10-19 / Luke 16:9-15
People are created to be loved. And things are created to be used. That sounds plain and simple enough.
But the reason the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.
The things that we own might just end up owning us without we realizing it and we end up being a slave to things instead of being master over them.
One of those things that is so common and which Jesus pointed out in the gospel is none other than money, which we are all too familiar with.
We may not be that rich but it can be said that we don't know how to handle riches and it might just be that the riches will handle us.
But as St. Paul said in the 1st reading, he had learnt to manage on whatever he has. He knows how to be poor and he knows how to be rich too; whether full stomach or empty stomach, poverty or plenty.
He was talking about the money that the Philippians had given to help him but then again he was not talking about the shortage of money.
What he was emphasizing was that more than the money that the Philippians had given him, it was the Philippians themselves who are a gift to him that he values and treasures.
So it comes back to that basic lesson in life. People are to be loved. Money is to be used.
Let us not reverse that order and turn our lives into a chaos.