Then He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15
“Whatever the soul may think fit to do itself, whatever care and pains it may take, relying only upon its own power, and thinking to be able to effect a perfect success by itself, without the cooperation of the Spirit, it is greatly mistaken. It is of no use for the heavenly places; it is of no use for the kingdom – that soul, which supposes that it can achieve perfect purity of itself, and by itself alone, without the Spirit. Unless the man who is under the influence of the passions will come to God, denying the world, and will believe with patience and hope to receive a good thing foreign to his own nature, namely the power of the Holy Spirit, and unless the Lord shall drop upon the soul from on high the life of the Godhead, such a man will never experience true life, will never recover from the drunkenness of materialism; the enlightenment of the Spirit will never shine in that benighted soul, or kindle in it a holy daytime; it will never awake out of that deepest sleep of ignorance, and so come to know God of a truth through God’s power and the efficacy of grace.”
Macarius of Egypt (300-391) in Spiritual Homilies, Homily 24.
In today’s Scripture Jesus warns us that “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” though the world proclaims the opposite message to us. We get so bombarded with the opposite message that many are overcome by the “drunkenness of materialism” as Macarius describes it.
Jenni and I walked around an outlet mall yesterday. The Christmas decorations were beautiful, but the marketing messages seemed to try to intoxicate our thinking linked to possessions. What’s at stake? Macarius rightly notes that getting this wrong can cause us to fail to “experience true life.”
True life is only found in enjoying and sharing all God richly supplies (see 1 Timothy 6:17-19). Grasping this is only possible with the help of the Holy Spirit. Remember, generosity is one of the fruits of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23). So, if you to grow in generosity, call out to God for help. Macarius is right! Don’t try to go at it alone.
Come Holy Spirit.