First Sunday in Advent

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT, DECEMBER 2: SPENDING LESS                                                                         You cannot serve God and money.

For most Americans, the Christmas Season—Advent in the Church Calendar—entails a period of excess shopping, spending, and partying. Jesus says something in that we should consider before jumping into this consumerism mayhem: “You cannot serve God and money.” When put into context, this verse speaks to the real problem of the excesses of the Christmas Season:

 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. . . .  No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:19-21,  24)

If you choose to go against the cultural flow and spend less this Christmas, it does not mean that you love your family and friends less. Perhaps by giving them a personal, creative gift or something from the Alternative Giving market, they may experience a deeper sense of your love and God’s love.

Prayer for the Day: Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.