Jesus instructs us that we should love God with all of our heart, all of our strength. He also tells us that we cannot serve two masters. It’s one or the other. So, when are we serving the other? When we are not loving God with all of our heart, all of our strength, that is exactly when we are serving mammon.
In other words, Being a Christian or a Catholic is not simply about saying, “I have accepted Jesus as my savior.” To be a real follower of Jesus means to be loving God with all of my heart, moment to moment. This is the only way in which we can save ourselves from having other goals, other desires. Because having other desires, other goals is our default program. This is the way in which our hearts and mind operate the moment we are lax in our devotion to Jesus and his message.
And we are not talking about being a “good person”, a moral person, someone who is obediently keeping the rules. Because Jesus dismisses this way of practicing Christianity by saying, “It’s not by good works alone that one enters the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus says that the price is that we have to love God with all of our heart. This means we have to cultivate a very personal relationship with God.
If we love someone, we desire to serve them. Not officially…but personally. After all, God is a person. He is our Eternal Father. This is in the “Lords Prayer”: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” “We love You, and we love Your name. And because we love You, we want to serve You.” How can we serve God? Is He far away. No. He is not far away. God is omnipresent. We are always in the presence of God. But sometimes we are not attentive to His presence. If we were, our every thought would be in prayer to Him. Our every thought would be, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” So what does this mean? It means that in every thought, word and deed, our only desire is to be pleasing to Him. The moment we slip from that resolve, we are in the service of mammon.
Actually we are defenseless. We have no defense against our tendency to be in the service of mammon. It is our default program. The only defense we have, is to be whole heartedly engaged in God’s service, with feelings of love. If the love is not there, we may be officially engaged in His service. But God wants more than that. He wants us to be personal with Him. That’s why Jesus tells us that the highest rule of all spiritual rules, the highest commandment, is to love God with all of our heart. Otherwise, we are engaged in the service of mammon. Either God is our master, or mammon is our master. Therefore the only way we can avoid being in the service of mammon, is to be engaged in the service of God. And God’s service means loving God.
When we love God, everything we do becomes service to God. If we love God, sweeping the kitchen floor, washing a pot, mowing the front lawn becomes service to God. Because the truth is, it is God’s floor, it is God’s pot, it is God’s lawn. If we think that “these things are mine”, this is the service of mammon. Everything belongs to God, because everything has been created by God. In truth, we are God’s instruments. He works through us. And if He is not working through us…then mammon is working through us.
Actually, God is the creator of all that exists, in heaven, on earth, or in hell. Nothing exists except by the will of God. Therefore God is also the creator of mammon. Why does God create mammon? God creates mammon in order to accommodate our desires to be separate from God, to be independent of God. God wants us to love Him…but He doesn’t force us. Mammon is nothing more than an expression of our desire to live in separation from God. The moment we are forgetful of God, we fall into mammon’s embrace.
Therefore being a Christian, a Catholic is a very serious commitment. It’s a whole different way of living, of thinking, of feeling, of walking, of talking. Because if we’re not in the loving service of God…we’re in the service of mammon. Jesus lays it on the line. No man can serve two masters. It’s one or the other.