ADDICTIONS
Be your customs without greed, content with what you have now, for he said: «I will not abandon you or leave you.» Hebrews 13: 5.
Many necessary things end up absorbing the lives of many: work, money and purchases. In some cases (the most serious), the person acts in a compulsive, obsessive and irrational way. And more commonly it is motivated by the ambition to be more or to have more. Strange phenomenon! The humble may be satisfied with what is necessary, but if he receives much, he wishes to accumulate more. It is certainly a tendency ingrained in human nature. The book of Acts (2: 44-45; 4:32) describes the early days of Christianity when the faithful did not claim to be their own anything they owned, but that they had all things in common, they sold their property and their possessions. goods and shared the profit from sales. But the biblical account no longer speaks of the things in common.
And it is that in the human heart there are seeds of selfishness. It is illustrated by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) in his short story entitled «How Much Land Does a Man Need?» Pahom seeks to settle somewhere where he can own and harvest the fruit of the land. He ends up in a village surrounded by vast tracts of productive land and decides to buy one. The head of the community clarifies:
«For a thousand rubles, all the land you can cover on foot for one day will be yours.» There is only one condition: if you do not return to the starting point before sunset, you lose money and land.
Pahom begins early in the morning to walk quickly to reach as much of the land as possible. As he moves away, she becomes more and more fertile and beautiful (or so it seems to him). At noon he thinks about making the turn back, but decides to continue a little longer. And then more and more. Already fatigued, he decides to return. The way back is very long and made very difficult due to accumulated fatigue. But Pahom, making a superhuman effort, manages to reach the starting point and falls collapsed. When his servant comes running to help him, he sees that the blood flows from his mouth and verifies that Pahom is dead. With integrity, he wields the hoe, digs a grave and there he bury it. Two square meters of land was enough.
Let us pray to God that in our lives the words of the apostle become a reality: that our customs are without greed and that we are happy with what we have now, because the Lord promises not to abandon us.
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Taken from: Daily Devotions for Adults 2020
“A Cheerful Heart Is Good Medicine”
From: Julian Melgoza-Laura Fidanza
Colaboradores: Yudith C & Alejandra Zavala
