God spoke to me!

In recent weeks, we've been discussing materialism in our family (well, maybe it's just me). Personally, I've been struggling quite a bit lately with the desire for material goods. I fully understand and embrace the fact that I am blessed with a comfortable life: home, car, job, physical comforts, relatively healthy family. We are better off than 90% (or higher) of the planet. But it's when I compare myself to the other 10% that I start to feel down. Why can't we have a house with a yard? Why can't we just pop out and buy a new car? Why can't we go on a nice vacation?

But then I start to feel bad for focusing on material goods. Catholic guilt? Maybe. I certainly don't want to lose sight of the ultimate level of comfort: being with God in Heaven.

As if to reinforce the point, God spoke quite clearly to me this Sunday through the Mass readings (Ecc 1:2, 2:21-23; Col 3:1-5, 9-11; Lk 12:13-21). In case you missed it (and I hope you were there!), the theme was around the vanity and idolatry of focusing on material things. It's not that material things are bad. But when we focus on them, we are distracted from what truly matters: God.