Nigeria’s Catholic Bishop Urges for ‘Balanced Christian Attitude’ Towards the Wealth and Money

Christians are bound by faith to seek a balanced Christian attitude towards wealth and to recognize the major problems that the acquisition of wealth or money and its use have posed, and continue to pose, to Christians.

Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza of the Catholic Diocese of Yola, Nigeria, said this in his homily during the Eucharistic Celebration for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time at the Holy Family Minor Basilica of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi, where he also urged the faithful, with the aid of faith, to assume the ‘correct attitude’ towards the wealth and money.

“Such an attitude,” the Nigerian Catholic Church leader said, is very important in the assessment of “our own performance as Christians” in the acquisition of wealth and its use. “You have to use it in such a way that God himself will be happy with you.”

“Wealth, like every other blessing of God, is given to us in trust so that we may serve God and serve people with it. To use wealth simply for self-indulgence is an abuse of wealth,” he said in the September 29 homily in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The prelate, who was in Kenya on a special mission for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, and the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), observed that “a deep-rooted belief that wealth or money is evil” has misled many Christians to believe that something is seriously wrong with being wealthy. 

“Many of our Christians would have been better off today financially were it not for such a deep-seated belief that money is evil and that to be very wealthy is equivalent to being very evil,” he said and clarified, “Yet this belief that money is essentially evil is neither found in the letter of St. James nor anywhere in the Bible.” 

“The Holy Scriptures do not condemn wealth, but its abuse,” noted the 54-year-old Nigerian-born bishop and called on the faithful to seek God’s inspiration for a “balanced Christian attitude towards wealth.” 

The abuse of wealth, said the bishop, who began his Episcopal Mission in April 2011, can take three forms: how it is acquired, how it is invested, and how a person invests their heart in it. 

He explained, “Wealth is good when one does clean and honest hard work to earn it. But when one gets it through dishonest and fraudulent means, then wealth has been abused. There are so many people in our world today that got rich by exploiting the poor.” 

He went on to mention some forms of exploitation: “There is, for example, the payment of very low wages to workers, the embezzlement of funds meant for the development of poor areas, the leaking of school examination papers, and the frustration of those who are waiting for vital documents by unduly delaying action on their applications.” 

Saying that the second form of abuse of wealth is found in those who use wealth to indulge themselves, the 4th bishop of his episcopal see said, “Wealth, like every other blessing of God, is given to us in trust so that we may serve God and serve people with it,” and cautioned that, “To use wealth simply for self-indulgence is an abuse of wealth.” 

Highlighting another form of abuse of wealth, which is depicted by those who “trust in the security of wealth rather than in God,” the West African Catholic Church leader further clarified that the extreme of undue love of money is when people are prepared to sacrifice even their faith or someone else's life in the pursuit of money. 

“There are some people who have killed to make money; there are some who have denied their faith and changed their religion for the love of money,” he noted, and counseled, “We should put our money at the service of God and humanity, including our individual families. Money can buy you salvation if you invest in the poor, the needy, and the marginalized.”

The Bishop who was appointed on 18 February 2011 reminded the faithful that “God is more concerned and interested with our hearts and our intentions than our different approaches to serving him” and cautioned the faithful against the temptation to “monopolize God” highlighting two biblical instances where Joshua in the 1^st Reading, and John in the Gospel Reading where Joshua tried to restrict others from acting in God's name.