Bloomberg TV said a decade of growth has been wiped of the Dow in just four days of trading.
It now looks, from the perspective of my nearly 58 years, that I shall never be able to retire. So I am beginning to cast around for monasteries that might take me in in exchange for the two bits I'll get from Social Security and another two bits from what's left of my two company pension funds.
Any suggestions?
Spiritually unhealthy sarcasm aside, I would welcome readers to share in the combox their favourite passages from the Bible, or from the Fathers and other saints, on greed and its rewards.
14 comments:
Unfortunately, Albion, the really greedy have probably still got quite enough to keep themselves in comfort. It's ordinary middle-class-type people like yourself, who were merely aiming at spending a well-earned retirement in austere comfort who've reaped the 'rewards'.
How about the whole of the Book of Job?
I worry and pray for those who have no memory or experience of the Great Depression which was artifically prolonged by FDR's repeated attempts to find a government solution for it. The terror of it all is that we have privatized profits and socialized losses which means that too many take risks which they know they should not on the belief that government can not afford to have them fail. On that theory we would still have a thriving buggy whip industry.
But no economic theory will help those who do not understand the necessity of living on less than you make and being prepared for an economic disaster made by the greed of others.
Just never make the mistake of saying to your spiritual director when he asks what you are doing in your rule for poverty that you are going to leave that up to God. It would be a huge mistake as I am more than willing to testify from experience.
St. Mark the Ascetic (a fifth century monk) wrote: "Reject all thoughts of greed, and you will be able to see the devils' tricks." (On the Spiritual Law)
"He is that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house" Proverbs XV, 27
"No matter how many things he has, he is always lusting after waht he has not; never at peace, he sighs for new possessions...and finds only weariness in the unreal pleaseures of the world. In his greediness, he counts all that he has clutched as nothing in comparison with what is beyond his grasp...No man can ever hope to own all things."
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153): On Loving God
Tom McHenry+
Mt. 6:20
Rev'd Up,
Your latest anti-Semitic "contribution" has been rejected, as have been previous ones and as will be all future ones.
I have no idea if you are even a Christian, much less a Catholic one, but if you are I would urge you to avail yourself of the sacrament of confession. The hatred that you constantly spew forth demonstrates that your mortal soul is in grave peril.
Rev'd up,
I ran across your response to this and rejected it instantly. To answer your questions: NO, Jesus was not antisemitic. Yes, you are, and blasphemously misquote Him to serve your purposes. Yes, your soul is in great danger. If you do not repent and seek cleansing of the hatred that so fills you, I'm afraid I do fear for your eternal destiny. Please heed the call of Our Lord to repentance.
We will not take your bait nor argue further with you, nor, pursuant to 2 John v.10 will we receive you into our discussion nor wish you God speed.
I rarely speak in these terms, but could not be at peace if I did not do so now.
ed
It's not biblical but for what its worth:
"If you want to know what God thinks of money, look who he gives it to."
"Thou shalt not steal......neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's." Dt 5:19,21
Hmmm....rings a bell.
If you are going to respond to his comments, you ought to let us see them as well. Otherwise you are debating what we cannot see.
The question has been raised as to why we have responded to this person without publishing his comments. It's simple. He gives us no way to tell him privately why we will not publish his stuff. We have now made it very clear that this kind of poison will not be published here. No one is debating him as such material is not worthy of debate.
ed
Discussion on this thread or any other about Rev'd Up ceases herewith.
This person has been informed by the only means we have that his/her poisonous comments remain unwelcome. Enough said.
The current situation reminds me of Daniel, Chapter 5, verses 1 to 9 (NEB):
"Behshazzar the King gave a banquet for a thousand of his nobles and was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand. Warmed by the wine, he gave orders to fetch the vessels of gold and silver which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the sanctuary at Jerusalem, that he and his nobles, his concubines and his courtesans, might drink from them. So the vessels of gold and silver from the sanctuary in the house of God at Jerusalem were brought in, and the king and his nobles, his concubines and his courtesans, drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, and of wood and stone. Suddenly there appeared the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster of the palace wall opposite the lamp, and the king could see the back of the hand as it wrote. At this the king's mind was filled with dismay and he turned pale, he became limp in every limb and his knees knocked together. He called loudly for exorcists, Chaldaeans, and diviners to be brought in; then, addressing the wise men of Babylon, he said, "Whoever can read this writing and tell me its interpretation shall be robed in purple and honoured with a chain of gold round his neck and shall rank as third in the kingdom." Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or interpret it to the king. King Belshazzar sat there pale and utterly dismayed, while his nobles were perplexed."
Are we, the sons of Christendom, who have abandoned the God of our fathers for Mammon and Baal, not to mention Molech, have defiled and ransacked our own temple, have exulted in our wealth and power and self-sufficiency, and have given ourselves over to every kind of excess and indulgence, in any different case than Belshazzar and his nobles?
I fear that we have indeed been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
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