"Spiritual Capitalism"

Today’s Good News from St. Luke 19:41-44 tells us of how sad Jesus was as he looked at what man had done to his beloved city of Jerusalem. “As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it.”

Looking at the present day situation of the world, would Jesus shed tears? Once seeing the mess we’ve made of it, would he also utter, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace.”

St. Augustine writing in The City of God describes two cities, an earthly city and a Heavenly City. The earthly city is one that’s created by self-love reaching the point of contempt for God whereas the Heavenly City revolves around the love of God and glories God and not men.

Today’s reflection from Fr. Richard Rohr points out the things we do that keep us from building the City of God calling it “spiritual capitalism.”

“We’ve all imbibed the culture of unrest so deeply. We just cannot believe that we could be respected or admired or received or loved without some level of performance. We are all performers and overachievers, and we think “when we do that” we will finally be lovable. Once you ride on the performance principle, you don’t even allow yourself to achieve it. Even when you “achieve” a good day of “performing,” it will never be enough, because it is inherently self-advancing and therefore self-defeating. You might call it “spiritual capitalism.”

Let us build the City of God
May our tears be turned into dancing

http://youtu.be/-zRAUH8yBcQ