(February 28, 2018 at 1:44 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(February 28, 2018 at 12:03 am)wallym Wrote: If Jesus had told the rich guy "Donate 10% of your wealth and follow me!" The rich guy would have done it in a heartbeat. That would have been easy. It'd certainly be very doable.
To me, based on what I know about Jesus, I think he'd be more of the take just what you need, and then the rest goes to helping your fellow man. If actual Jesus were following you asking you to justify all your purchases, that would suck a lot, right? "No no Jesus, this tile pattern is much prettier than the cheaper linoleum alternative. Much prettier than a mosquito net is important for that malaria plagued village in africa." "I'm too tired to make dinner Jesus, that's why we're going out to eat for a price that could feed 10 homeless folks."
Put bluntly, it's borderline murder by omission.
From what I understand, He was speaking to that guy specifically. Jesus wanted him to leave his life behind and become another one of His diciples. It seems a bit unreasonable to think Jesus literally wants all of us to live off the clothes on our backs and travel around different cities evangelizing. If we were all called to do that specifically, nothing else would ever get done in society, including having children and taking care of your family, and the human race would die off. We are called to follow Christ in our own roles.
Of course it would be very admirable to literally never go out to eat, never buy anything nice, and only live off the absolute bare minimums. There are many saints who lived that way by choice, and it's a great thing. But it is not a moral obligation. We are not morally required to live that sort of life style.
So long as you give a reasonable amount of what you have and don't waste money on useless stuff all the time or live a lavish lifestyle, you are not "sinning." At least not in my faith. Perhaps there are some more extreme branches of Christianity that think otherwise though.
I occasionally watch a documentary show on mtv called The Fabulous Life of the Filthy Rich, and it's absolutely ridiculous and sad to see the huge amounts of money those people drop on things that are just so pointless, just for the sake of it. Like owning a dozen vintage cars that just sit in your huge garage. That, I would say, is very much sinful, and I have a hard time imagining not feeling guilty if I lived my life splurging like that. I can see why Jesus would say it's hard getting into Heaven if you're rich.
I'm not saying evangelizing. I'm saying prioritizing like you actually believe what Jesus was preaching. Do you need a house rather than a trailer? How much money would that free up to spend on saving lives rather than having some extra room?
I get the idea it's setting the bar higher than people like, but Jesus is a God who let humans kill him so they can go to heaven even though they didn't deserve it. In that context, is not eating at applebees once a week, and spending the saved money on food for the food shelter that big an ask?
