There is no doubt what the world itself believes in and recommends: the world despises what God values, and values what God despises.  As Archbishop William Temple once said, it is as though someone had broken into a shop and changed all the price labels, so that all the really good things were marked down, and all the worthless things priced up – all the values upside down.

Of one thing we may be certain, to put worldly things first, whether one actually has them or not, destroys true devotion to God.  As St John says, “Do not bestow your love on the world, and what the world has to offer; the lover of this world has no love of the Father in him” (1 John 2:15). (2)

If we try to combine the two, putting the false things first, while remaining practising members of the Church, we shall be content with externals only.  What matters then is to have a good name rather than to deserve it; to have a reputation for being straightforward or devout, rather than actually to be so.  And when one relies on appearances without the reality, one is obliged to cover up what is lacking with subterfuges and poses.

To prize the things of the world is to side firmly with Caiaphas.  If we want to be on Our Lord’s side, we have to act and think as he did and as he bids us do, by making God our treasure on whom we truly and joyfully set our hearts.

References

1. Josephus, F. (born 37 AD) trans Whiston, W. (1861) The antiquities of the Jews, 20, 9,1, Halifax: Milner and Sowerby.

2. Knox, R. (1948) The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated from the Latin Vulgate, London: Burns Oates and Washbourne Ltd.