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<\/p>\n\u201cNo servant can serve two masters.
\nHe will either hate one and love the other,
\nor be devoted to one and despise the other.
\nYou cannot serve both God and mammon\u201d (Luke 16:1-13).
\nAs a child I always imagined \u2018mammon\u2019 to be either some dark and sticky substance, impossible to wash off, or a heap of ill-gained gold. Mammon was a younger brother\u00a0 – or sister \u2013 of those shekels that Judas accepted for betraying Jesus.\u00a0 Both belonged in Hell and represented ultimate darkness and misery. Mammon was more mysterious, though \u2013 it was something akin to the unlucky gold piece that you find in fairy tales… such gold never leaves its owner and always causes tragedies.
\nAs I struggled to grow in faith beyond childhood understanding of Gospels, I began to notice that mammon is much, much more than money or even simple material gain. It really can be anything we cling to \u2013 instead of clinging to God. Mammon is a choice between what we love and cherish most – and God – and we make these choices almost every minute of our lives.
\nEven once\u2019 own children can become Mammon when we begin to idolize them. It is then when we make the worst mistakes that will cost our offspring much suffering in later life. It usually begins with \u201cOh, poor child, so much to do… Of course you do not need to go to church today, I know you have lots to study\u201d. Then it becomes \u201c oh, so that nasty priest was unpleasant to you during confession? You need not go to confession, really… you will develop a guilt complex\u2026 and God will forgive you sins anyway\u201d. Finally it may come back to \u201c so that girl you are living with would like you to merry her? You say she is pregnant? Are you sure she is not just after your money? You know that there are simpler solutions\u2026\u201d etc
\nI have heard a mother tell her 12 year old only daughter that \u201cit is all right to deny Christ if situation needs it\u201d. I have seen people take off the only holy picture they had on the wall because a very influential (and fiercely atheistic) man was coming to supper.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A career or work can become Mammon, too. Work is seen as something morally \u201cpure\u201d or virtuous. Most of us in the West are workaholics. Therefore the first thought of the day is not God, it is work. How often do I myself sin that way? I wake up and reality hits me \u2013 I have to make up a test for my Latin students, or \u201chave I checked the reference pages for that lecture I am working on?\u201d And yet I remember that my Grandmother and Mother would begin the day with a lovely song \u201c Kiedy ranne wstaja zorze\u2026\u201d (which roughly translates into \u201cwhen the world wakes up, the earth and sea, and every being are singing Your glory, o Lord\u201d)
\nWhat is truly terrible is that once embraced, Mammon enslaves and eventually destroys us. Parents find out that worshipping children leads to their – and the children\u2019s \u2013 misery. Hearts are broken and not mended, bitter abandonment in old age becomes a norm.
\nWe all also discover that the more we bend backward to accommodate the atheistic world around us, the more we try to blend in, the more we \u201ctolerate\u201d the intolerable, and hide or even deny our Christian beliefs, the more we are despised and rejected.
\nDevil who is Mammon always devours his slaves.
\nIt is so much sweeter to stay with Jesus\u2026 no matter what. It is so much better to serve Him. His Kingdom is just and never demands from us more than we can do. His laws never bring degradation upon us, His love sustains us in every moment of our lives. And we do not have to be afraid… ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon\u201d (Luke 16:1-13). As a child I always imagined \u2018mammon\u2019 to be either some dark and sticky substance, impossible to wash off, or a heap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n