Buy low, sell high and diversify your portfolio? The 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

As the Covid 19 pandemic undermines economic stability, more comparisons are being made to the financial crisis of 2008.  What it was like to be an insider at Lehman Brothers during the financial? Scott Freidheim—former Lehman Brothers Chief Administrative Officer and Executive Vice President—offered a first-hand account of what happened in 2008 to the Lumen Christi Institute at the University of Chicago. Mr. Freidheim said that Lehman Brothers did not need to fail and described in personal terms how the fall of Lehman Brothers affected his sense of meaning as a person of faith. Here is Mr. Freidheim's talk at the Lumen Christi Institute in 2018.
 
Why do we talk about the traumatic financial crisis of 2008 during the Covid 19 pandemic? We draw meaning in life by examining the past, to help us cope with the present and prepare for the future. Mr. Freidheim said that he realized that he was focusing to much on the satisfaction his career gave him. He learned through the financial crisis that he had to “diversify” his personal portfolio and make more room for the gift of faith. He took meaning from crisis.
 
Meaning and happiness in life… is there a difference? More than you might think. Researchers suggest that happiness and meaning in life overlap, but they are not identical. Satisfaction of our needs and wants helps to make us happy, but those same indicators alone are not what give life meaning. Happiness is mostly about my sense of well-being now, in the present. I may have fears about the future or regrets about the past that can affect happiness, but happiness, or the lack thereof, are very much about the present.  Meaning is different.
 
Meaning and Happiness in Life
Our sense of meaning in life integrates the past, present, and future. In surveys that I will discuss later, respondents offered that thinking about hopes for the future and learning from the past have relevance to meaning, but not so much to happiness. In surveys reported in Scientific American, happiness was linked to the gratitude for gifts received. Meaning tended to orient to how we have contributed in life.  The survey suggested, that higher levels of worry, stress, and anxiety were often part of the experience of meaning, but not happiness. Often, people who have survived struggles in marriage have an enhanced sense of meaning though happiness may be negatively affected.
 
The more meaning we find increases happiness, but not always. A common example is the “parenthood paradox.”  Parent often are happy they had children, but parents who are living with children often score lower on the happiness index. Lots of stress, demands and worries accompany raising kids. Raising children can decrease happiness at some points in life but increase the sense of meaning and purpose in life. 
 
I read an article in Scientific American that discussed the work of Roy Baumeister and his colleagues. Their research found that feeling connected to others, feeling productive, and not being alone or bored contributed to both happiness and meaning. But,

1. Finding one’s life easy or difficult was related to happiness, but not meaning.

2. Feeling healthy was related to happiness, but not meaning.

3. Feeling good was related to happiness, not meaning.

4. Scarcity of money reduced happiness more than meaning.

5. People with more meaningful lives agreed that ‘relationships are more important than achievements.

6. Helping people in need was linked to meaning but not happiness.

7. Expecting to do a lot of deep thinking was positively related to meaningfulness, but negatively with happiness.

8. Happiness was related more to being a taker rather than a giver, whereas meaning was related more to being a giver than a taker.

9. The more people felt their activities were consistent with core themes and values of their self, the greater meaning they reported in their activities.

10. Seeing oneself as wise, creative, and even anxious were all linked to meaning but had no relationship (and in some cases, even showed a negative relationship) to happiness.[ii]

Happiness has more to do with having needs satisfied, getting what we want, and feeling good.  Meaning is more related to developing a personal identity, expressing our self, and consciously integrating our past, present, and future experiences. We can live without significant happiness. Lack of meaning is deadly. Humans are made for meaning and purpose. That is what the Gospel is about today.
 
The Parables of Jesus: Matthew 13:44-52
The Gospel for this Sunday continues the parables of Jesus. Today the Lord teaches
 
1. The Treasure Hidden in the Field (13:44) What if you found a treasure hidden in a field, would you bury it again? Because you can’t steal or take the treasure; you have to acquire it the right way. You need to buy the land and the rights to what is on or under the land. You can’t take meaning, you can only receive it.
2. The Pearl of Great Price (13:45) A merchant in search of fine pearls is willing to give all she has for this one great pearl. What will she live on? The kingdom requires commitment; we need to be all in. Meaning is found in our commitments.
3. The Cast Net: (13:47-50)  The kingdom gathers in everyone it can, but then does quality control at the end. Jesus is not a universalist. He clearly teaches the reality of heaven and hell. When Jesus talks about all the trash that is gathered in the net, he is advising us not to get anxious and worried about short term deviations in our investment portfolio; instead invest with a long-term strategy in mind. That is where meaning is found.
4. The Scribe of the Kingdom: The Christian can put together the past, the present and the future and understand the meaning and purpose of their life, just like a good financial adviser. Life is not just one dang thing after another. Life has an upward trajectory. So does the stock market over the last 100 years, according to the guy that manages my retirement fund. Jesus is teaching us about our opportunity in the present to make sense of our past and to prepare for the future. This is why the Church teaches that Christ is present in the Old Testament, but fully revealed in the New Testament. All of Creation is opening up to the revelation of the children of God. Rom. 8:19 God has not failed us, although historically, there have been some tremendous ups and downs, bull and bear market. God has an excellent track record including the Resurrection, so that must mean something in your investment strategy.
 
Meaning and Purpose for the Christian
St. Paul wrote the Romans about meaning and purpose in life.

Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified. Rom 8:28-30

 St. Paul advises that we are all predestined for union with God. It is for us to lose our courage and pull out. Social unrest and a pandemic are wearing on our soul and may threaten some.
 
St. Francis de Sales wrote his Introduction to the Devout Life, which is a classic of spirituality precisely because it was written for laypeople. St. Francis talks about how to practice the spirit of poverty even while living in the world.

Again, if you are impoverished much or little by unforeseen events, such as storm, flood, fire, drought, theft, or lawsuit; then is the real time to practice poverty, accepting the loss quietly, and adapting yourself patiently to your altered circumstances.

 The book of Genesis tells the story of how Jacob, who we know as Israel, stole his older brother’s inheritance by masquerade. Esau was a hairy guy, so Jacob’s mom put animal hair on Jacob’s hands so that, when he went to see his blind father Isaac, he would fool him into giving away Esau’s rightful inheritance to himself. Not morally respectable but sic transit mundi. St. Francis compares Jacob’s fake hair with detachment from things in time of pandemic:

Esau and Jacob both came to their father with hairy hands, but the hair on Jacob’s hands did not grow from his skin, and could be torn off without pain; while that on Esau’s hands being the natural growth of his skin, he would have cried out and resisted if anyone had torn it off.

 St. Francis then compares the story of the fake hair on Jacob’s hands to the illusion of our possessions in this life.  in Genesis.

So, if our possessions are very close to our heart, and storm or thief tear them away, we shall break forth in impatient murmurs and lamentations. But if we only cleave to them with that solicitude which God wills us to have, and not with our whole heart, we shall see them rent away without losing our sense of calmness. This is just the difference between the clothing of men and beasts; the beast’s clothing grows on its flesh, and man’s is only laid on so that it may be laid aside at will. [iii]

 We need stuff in this life to survive, but stuff is not the meaning of our life. We some basic stuff to be happy, but how we relate to our possessions is what creates meaning in our life. In short, St. Francis advises in a down market, buy. The Saint Maker is always bullish on the life of grace.
 
Mr. Freidheim’s personal story about success, failure and meaning in his life is worth pondering. The social research on happiness and how we find meaning in life illuminates how we disciples receive the Gospel. Jesus is calling us, laity and clergy, single or married, to seek first the kingdom of heaven. Like a treasure hidden in a field, you can’t take meaning and happiness, but you can possess them if you buy the field first. Life, the source of happiness and meaning, is like the pearl of great price, and is your single most important investment. Don’t get discouraged by the mixed investment results in the short term. We are only in the middle of the story, our investment is not fully mature. Remember, as St. Francis advises, in chaos there is profit. Discern wisely, like a Christian scribe, what is important about the past, what is useful for action in the present while preparing for the future. That is where we find the meaning of all of this.

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