We are Administrators, Not Owners - Pope

In Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 Lenten Message, he reminds us of a truth that should be familiar to all Christians:

According to the teaching of the Gospel, we are not owners but rather administrators of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possession, but means through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as a steward of His providence for our neighbor. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, material goods bear a social value, according to the principle of their universal destination (cf. n. 2404)

In the Gospel, Jesus explicitly admonishes the one who possesses and uses earthly riches only for self. In the face of the multitudes, who, lacking everything, suffer hunger, the words of Saint John acquire the tone of a ringing rebuke: “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?” (1 Jn 3,17). In those countries whose population is majority Christian, the call to share is even more urgent, since their responsibility toward the many who suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater. To come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to being an act of charity.

 

So much of the resentment in our society seems to come from the idea that other people are making unjust claims on “what is ours.” We see it on the personal level and we see it on the state and national levels in debates on welfare, foreign aid and immigration. Well, if our dominant political elites continue to claim “In God We Trust” on our coinage and that we are a nation “Under God”, then we as a society have to accept our stuff isn’t ours alone and act accordingly. Or consider dropping the God references from our political life.