It has often struck me when hearing the news the last several months that being rich in what matters to God is more important than ever. With banks failing, Wall Street needing a huge bailout, and a 700 billion dollar economic recovery transfusion coming from the government, who among us hasn’t had the sinking feeling that this world’s riches are nothing at time but straw?
So you’d think that in this time of uncertainty, and on the brink of a pivotal election, people would be coming to Church, reconnecting with their God, and drawing strength from their faith, building up those riches that are from God. But you’d be wrong. Right now, we’re taking the annual “October Count” – a yearly mass-by-mass attendance count. The attendance counts as compared to registered parishioners this year are running 2-3% lower than last year, and 6-7% lower than this time in 2004.
In some ways it strikes me that we are quickly losing our faith, or even worse, that we as a society are becoming indifferent to faith, seeing it as irrelevant or ultimately meaningless. At a time in our nation’s history when we should be returning to God in droves, people instead are staying away in droves.
And it’s hard to live through uncertain times without faith. How can we ride the ups and downs of life with anything close to tranquility without the rock that is our faith? Instead we as a society seem content to place our faith in government bailouts, while we continue to practice unprecedented greed. And to all of that God tells us today, what will happen if we hear “You fool, this very night your life will be demanded of you?” The time to store up treasure in what matters to God is clearly here. How will we people of faith give witness to that?