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
“Everyone wants to cling to his ways, refusing to give up any of his attachments. As a result such people feel neither thought to this and turn their attention again to their beloved possessions. And yet many of them have been wearing a religious habit for forty or fifty years. It is questionable indeed whether they will be saved at the Day of Judgment, for their spirit is habitually chained to created things and willfully entangled in them. You may be sure that such people are not aware of their state.
Of course they find numerous excuses: “I must have such and such a thing,” they will say. “Surely, it will do me no harm.” And thus they offer these obstacles a seat within themselves, and there they unite with their natural inclinations to such a degree that they can no longer feel any compunction and so they ignore them. These are strong and powerful obstacles, veritable fortresses erected against God’s work, and yet such people are not aware of them.”
Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361) in Sermons (CWS; Mahwah: Paulist, 1985) 112.
Today in Australia I have various speaking commitments at the CMA Conference in Melbourne. Among them is a seminar on nurturing generosity. Part of pathway to doing that is helping wake people up, spiritually-speaking, to the way in which possessions can tempt us into becoming attached or “habitually chained” and “willfully tangled” to them.
In plain terms, the work of Christian ministry workers is not to try to rob people but to help them. That happens not when we ask for something from them, but when we sow truth into them that they have been blessed to participate in God’s work. By identifying the strong and powerful obstacles to generosity that surface in our own lives, we are able to help others take hold of life with us.