To Seek and to Save November 21

November 21, 2006
Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

For you say, ‘I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,’and yet do not realize that you are wretched,pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich,and white garments to put onso that your shameful nakedness may not be exposed,and buy ointment to smear on your eyes so that you may see. Revelations 3:17-18

“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,for today I must stay at your house.” Luke 19:5

Piety

Jesus, I am wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Jesus, I am affluent. In my wealth, I have made only a half-hearted commitment to you. Please forgive my weakness. Help me today and every day to be faithful to your teaching and strong willed to follow you and what you ask of me. Help us to give away what we don’t need, se what is left to aid the poor, and turn to you to fill our cup with gold from the refiner’s fire. Deliver us from evil and grant us peace today so we can do what pleases you. Amen.

Study

Are you benefiting from saving with CD rates that, at 5.1 percent, are nearing 20-year highs?

How has the stock market at 12.342, up another 36 points yesterday, padded your 401-K statement?

Have you refinanced? Mortgage rates remain under 6 percent, helping to fuel the bubble in real estate prices.

What do sacred scriptures tell us about this today? To me, it says that affluence is not the goal. Your net worth in Quicken doesn’t matter as much as your net worth in the confessional.

We should be investing in what Jesus teaches and preaches. Zacchaeus, unlike the anonymous rich man earlier in Luke’s Good News, know the proper place of wealth. He gives away half of what he has and reaps an eternal reward.

Action
http://www.oikocredit.org/site/en/

What would Jesus say if he reviewed your investment portfolio? He might call you out of your tree and invite himself over any time.

How do we give away our investments? A company like Oikocredit gives you a new opportunity. In a year when micro-finance pioneer Muhammed Yunus who started the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize, Oikocredit gives you a chance to invest in a mutual fund company that specializes in using the funds for small loans to people in the developing world.

“His (Yunus’) model of giving very small loans to people, especially women, who join hands in groups of five, which warrant each others loans, has proven to really help them free themselves from poverty. Loans bring sustainable development in the sense that it helps people create an income and thus bread on the table for the family – not only today, but also tomorrow. This new sign of recognition will be a strong and needed new impulse for the whole Microfinance sector, to the benefit of millions of poor families around the world,” said Tor Gull, director of Oikocredit.

How much of your investment portfolio is working for the poor through credit unions, micro-finance or socially responsible investing? How much of it is making Wall Street millionaires richer by the day?

(Tomorrow, more of Arthur Simon’s suggestions.)