24th Sunday Ordinary Time – On Forgiving the Rich…

There are those who have more than me.  For the longest time, I have envied them, put them down, and hated them – when ya come down to it.  For example…

Tim Manion has such an incredible voice, poetic soul, and finesse with his guitar.  I still envy him and hate him and always have.  Actually, we joke about this.  A saving grace.  I envy Dan Schutte whom people regard as so damn talented and adorable… Dan, we need to joke more about this.  It’s true though.  I could go on…

People with what I perceive as having more money, talent, prestige, power, eloquence, suavité, position, esteem, and so on.  My list seems endless.

In this instance, forgiving the rich can go two ways… maybe three

• I can say to myself, “I really need to forgive those (bastards) for having more than I. I know I’m a lousy disciple for not doing that…”
• Or, I can say to myself, “Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was…”  🙂
• Or, really, I can take a look inside to find what has driven me practically forever
  • My constant and deep-seated sense of inferiority
  • Emptiness and fear of not having enough, not being enough
  • Sense of inadequacy and unworthiness

Again, similar to forgiving the poor, the rich remind many of us about our inadequacies and emptiness.  Forgiving them means coming to terms with ‘not being enough’ and such.  Which actually means welcoming our wounded and vulnerable lives while we let the rich off our hooks.

We learn to receive our lives and not make the more talented, those seemingly better blessed, pay the price for my inferiority.

“God, I surrender my fear of not being enough.  Help me focus on what you want me to be.”