VOCATION AND MONEY

(February 26)

“Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray him.” (Mk 14: 10-11)

Here St. Mark the Evangelist mentions that Judas is “one of the twelve.” That is Judas’s “vocation” and God-given “place” in this world. But his concern, nay, obsession, with money (cf. Jn 12: 6), which isn’t quite being satisfied in his God-given “place,” draws him out of that place, and onto the slippery slope of “sin” (or “amartia” in Greek, which means “missing the mark” or the point of one’s own existence). It’s an obsession that, when succumbed to, not only makes life worse for Judas, but entirely unbearable, so he kills himself (Mt 27: 5). As it turns out, it wasn’t money that was keeping him alive, but his vocation.

Today, however hard things may seem to be, when it comes to money and the concerns surrounding it, let me be grateful for, and focused on, my vocation. God does take care of us, as we walk our cross-carrying journeys, in the light of His grace, doing the next right thing in gratitude and humility, in our God-given places in this world. Today I belong to “one of His,” in the little place and vocation God has given me, and it is ever-new and ever-worth living. “Give us this day our daily bread,” Lord, “and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” And “lead us not into temptation,” like the fears connected to financial insecurity, “but deliver us from the evil one,” by Your grace.