Feeling rich—without wealth

A Reflection for Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

McGee’s Irish Pub on 55th and 8th Ave, just a few blocks away from my college apartment, is one of the first places I’ve truly felt rich. Around me were a group of people I would call my best friends and compatriots from my four years of college. Although we still had a few weeks until graduation, it was clear that the day was growing closer and closer. Nothing profound was discussed, we just told jokes and enjoyed each other’s company as the night crept later and later. Yet, I still remember feeling immense gratitude through the evening: Even though we were all broke and drinking beer-flavored water, our metaphorical pockets felt full.

Jesus’s message feels especially tailored for the broke college students of the world: There are plenty of ways to feel rich without monetary wealth. The key is to fill your life with other things. While my McGee’s excursions somewhat feel like an arbitrary solution, I believe there is a lot of power in the arbitrary. At the end of a tough week or a difficult day, having a group of people to rely on can be key to picking up the energy to power through difficult moments. I can’t count the number of times that either myself or one of my friends needed a pick-me-up from company or open ears following a particularly rough situation. No matter how little money we had to spend, we were able to find laughs and satisfaction in the company around us.

The second part of Jesus’s message is the importance of remembering the “broke-wealth.” In the parable, Jesus describes a man hoarding his wealth, hoping to keep himself comfortable for weeks to come. Every broke student (or in my case now, recent graduate) hopes to someday live comfortably and not struggle for money, but as the parable points out, there are ways to feel fulfilled without greedily holding wealth. If, like the man in the Gospel, we have the riches to live like some modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge, we must remember to let go and find ways to truly complete ourselves. Friends, family, passions. Those are things that can truly fill up our spiritual bank accounts. 

Ultimately, I hope that if I am comfortable enough to live with some wealth, I’ll remember the countless evenings I spent in my college friends’ company and the fact that although we weren’t monetarily wealthy, we sure did have a lot.