Jesus and the Pope went on a walk through the park.

‘Good teacher,’ said the Pope, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’

Jesus said, ‘Don’t kill anybody, don’t cheat on your loved ones, don’t steal or lie, and honor your parents.’

The Pope said, ‘But I’ve done that since I was a kid.’

‘Ok,’ said Jesus, ‘You lack one thing. Sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, then come follow me.’

The Pope couldn’t help but think about the Vatican jewels, the da Vinci paintings, the endless and priceless properties, not to mention the Prada shoes. So when he heard this he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

The point of this story isn’t to take a cheap shot at an ascetic whose holiness few will ever rival, rather it’s to point out that even the Pope has to deal with the prickly pear of wealth.

The Third World lives in hunger, poverty, and disease. You and I live where we spend more money on advertising than public education and find ourselves devoting 1 hour to spiritual practice for every 5 hours we spend shopping.

The deal isn’t ‘poverty=good’ and ‘possessions=bad’ – wouldn’t that make things easy? The deal is that because of our inherent propensity to trust in things seen versus things unseen, we’re constantly over-buying in a fruitful effort to quench our thirst for meaning and fulfillment.

It’s never about what we possess, it’s about what possesses us.