Today’s first reading was from Genesis 13, and began: “Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents,so that the land could not support them if they stayed together; their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.“
The priest (the same one who gave the excellent homily yesterday) noted the odd irony of this concept: shouldn’t more money, more possessions, more “financial security,” have brought them together as a family? But no, even Father Abraham suffered from the perils of wealth (although Genesis 13 makes it clear that his solution was very gentlemanly, by letting Lot take the nicer land, which turned out to be full of creeps). Father referred to this as “more possessions, more fighting.” In the pews, I was silently hoping for a, “mo’ money, mo’ problems.” No dice.
After that, he told a story about how a guy he knew who had grown up in the Great Depression had a big family meal with salmon or something, and said, “Hey, save the fish heads for mom, they’re her favourite part.” (In fact, his mom used to take the fish heads first b/c they couldn’t afford enough fish for everyone to have a non-disgusting part). He said, “the mom just said, ‘you silly child,’ which is mom-speak for ‘you idiot.'”
Fish heads and all, it was a lovely homily all around.