Biography
Archbishop Rembert Weakland entered religious life as a Benedictine novice, was professed as a monk, and later ordained a priest. He then studied music in New York and Europe and taught music for six years. Archbishop Weakland has often stood on the side of those who have, at some risk, supported peace and justice in our time. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"The Old Mammon of Iniquity" 
We all have a favorite biblical passage and mine is about the mammon of iniquity. That is one that few people really like. In fact, I know a lot of priests who would never preach on that passage. It is Luke 16, the story about a rich man who had a steward.

The parable tells that the steward wasn't very good. He was not somebody that you and I would like to emulate. His master says, "What is this I hear about you, steward? You are not being very just." The steward is sharp and brings in all those who owe something to the master and reduces their debt. When that is all over, and this is the tough passage, then the master commends the dishonest steward for his shrewdness. He says, "The children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of light. I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteousness mammon, the mammon of iniquity, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal habitations."

The reason why that is my favorite passage is a curious one. When I was a young man of 23, I spent the summer in Munich. It was a great summer. I was doing some studies in music at the university and enjoying it as anybody 23 would. It was 1950, right after the war. One Sunday I heard that a famous theologian and philosopher, whose name was Romano Guardini — that is an Italian-sounding name but he was very, very German — was going to preach that Sunday at the Ludwigskirche. I went off to the Ludwigskirche with this big gang of university students to hear the famous Romano Guardini. Just to look at him in the pulpit already had me entranced. Mere he stood with that shock of white hair, preaching to this university crowd — a very cynical audience if there ever was one. Believe it or not, he took this text about the mammon of iniquity. I had never heard anybody preach on it. He himself admitted he wasn't so sure what it meant, but he knew the message he wanted to give to that youthful audience that Sunday morning.

He began and talked about the need for all of us to make friends with the human condition, with the humanity that we have. Our holiness, both as a society and as an individual, would only come about once we made friends with the human aspect of our lives. He said he wasn't so sure that was the original biblical meaning, but he knew that was the message the group needed that morning.

He went on to explain why it was so important. I think he knew that among all of those present, there were many who were looking for world situations to be solved by new ideologies. He was thinking, for example, of the communist cell that had arisen in the Munich university in those post-war years. He was looking also at a group of young people who had been greatly disillusioned by the Hitler period, by an ideology that somehow was going to solve the world's problems. He began by saying that if you try to construct any kind of society based purely on a kind of human solution, it would never work unless you took into account something that would balance the mammon of iniquity, the negative aspect of that human condition.

He began to explain. He said communism was a human system that would solve the world problems once, of course, we got rid of all of the class distinctions. Once we got rid of all the class struggles and had everybody at the same level, then all problems in society would disappear. I'm sure that many, when they heard that sermon that Sunday, didn't quite believe him.

I only remembered that sermon a few years later. It's amazing that I am able to talk about it now almost forty years later. I never expect anybody to remember any of my sermons after forty years! But, I was 23; that was a crucial time in my life as well. We were all kind of drawn towards some kind of ideology at that point.

Years later, though, it came back to me. It came back to me when I was working on the Economic Pastoral Letter of the U.S. Catholic Bishops. Suddenly it seemed to me that you and I can also make similar kinds of human constructs without taking into account the negative aspects that are there.

I began to take a look at capitalism. I had to say to myself, "Am I making out of capitalism one of those human constructs that is going to solve all the world's problems? Am I saying that if the free market is functioning properly, then we don't have to worry any more about what is going to happen on this globe?" So, I took a second look. I had to say to myself, "Yes, capitalism can become another kind of ideology. It's a human system and it has human imperfections. It is only when we make friends with those imperfections, take them into account and do something about them, that the system could ever work."

As Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill both said, capitalism doesn't have built into it a kind of equity system. It can make profit, but it can't distribute it. That has to come from other hidden hands that distribute in the society. You and I know, how difficult it was during the industrial revolution to iron out all of the human negativities; the way in which the human person was almost annihilated for the sake of wealth. That is why we had the unions come along and give some balance, putting the human dimension into that machine. You and I also know why we have anti-trust laws, the need to regulate so that the biggest fish in the pond doesn't swallow all the other fish. If capitalism is to work on a competitive basis, then you have to have competition among equals and not among big fish and little fish in the pond.

I wonder if we are not also constructing new kinds of ideologies, all kinds of human systems that we think will solve world problems. Don't you think that the whole nuclear deterrence thing is also built on that principle? Somehow if they have so many weapons and we have so many weapons, we can just keep building those weapons up to keep everybody in balance and nothing will happen. We have to learn that all human systems have built into them the mammon of iniquity. They have that human incapacity to create perfection. If you don't take that into account, then you are going up the wrong channel of the river. You are going to find yourself in difficulty.

So far, I have said a word about systems. The reason why I do that is because it is so easy for us in the United States to think we can construct that kind of world system. In a way, all of us — and especially we religious — are a bit imbued with "neopelaginism." Pelaginism means that by purely human effort we can create something that is going to be perfect. Pelaginism is a bit of our American culture. We think we are going to create a new program, or a new process, and that is going to solve everything. But we always have to take into account human imperfection and human weakness.

The Old Testament makes this very clear to us. The moment we begin to think that we can always solve problems with our horsepower, that is the moment we are going to get swallowed in the sea. At that moment we have to rely again on God.

Now I would like to say a word about that same mammon of iniquity applied, not to the world universal system, but to each one of us. The theme of Romano Guardini was more than just one of world system. It was also something about us individuals. If we want to become holy people; if we want to become disciples of Christ; then we must always accept the fact of our human condition; we have to reckon with that human condition. If we want to be holy, we have to realize that of ourselves we are not going to make it. If we want to be holy persons, we have to also look at the dark side of who we are.

I want to talk now a little bit about the imperfections that we all have. Let's call it "the human dimension." I don't know about you, but I know that I resonate a lot with St. Paul when he says that we want to do so much but somehow don't seem to be able to arrive at doing it because we just never measure up. Never measuring up is so much a part of what it means to be human. We realize we cannot do it on our own. Perhaps that is the moment — when we can say that — that we can begin to be holy.

But there is more to it than that. I am an archbishop. People ask me what my job description is. I really don't know! I suppose it is to be a disciple of Christ like everybody else and try to get out there a little bit ahead of the others, to be a leader. One thing I am sure of, and that is, I never seem to be able to have enough energy and time to solve all the problems I find. I have to be constantly accepting the human limitation. It seems that every time I upturn a stone to find something, another worm comes out. The more evils you seem to touch; the more human hurts you seem to touch; the more there seem to be to cure. Acceptance of that human limitation is so important for holiness. I think you have already figured out why. It is when you realize what that human limitation is that you begin to fall back on God and God's grace.

I know how hard it must be for teachers, social workers — all of those involved in human services. As soon as they think they are getting somewhere, it seems they have to start over again. That is the human condition. If you were to ask me what I think was the hardest thing for Jesus when He took on our human condition, I wouldn't say the suffering. That was tough, I'm sure. I think it was to realize that He was in a human body and that that humanness had its limitations; it was constricted. It cannot be everything; it cannot do everything.

Secondly, I think you and I have to accept more than that. We have to accept being limited but also being imperfect, sinful, and make friends with that inner dark side of our life if we want to became holy people.

Shortly after I had heard Romano Guardini's sermon in Munich, I went to England. I stayed at one of those beautiful old colleges at Oxford. There was a young man who wanted to see me. He had heard that there was an American there and we had a beer. While we were talking, I realized he was suicidal. He had been abandoned by his family when he was a very young child, raised in an orphanage. At the age of about 20, he saw no reason why he should go on living. Somehow he had to come to terms with that human situation, that human condition, in which he found himself. He had to see that that which was really negative had to become for him the means of his salvation.

I talked a lot that night. I was full of Guardini! I tried to tell him to take all the sufferings he had, the loneliness, the abandonment, the feeling that he was nobody, and try to see if he could reach out to those in society who also feel that way. Why didn't he develop the talents he had and reach out to "them," using that imperfection, that lack in his own life as a way of somehow becoming for others. That was what Jesus was all about, becoming for others and being able to help them and lift them up out of the situation in which they found themselves. You and I have to come to terms with that dark side of our lives. It means admitting who and what we are; admitting our proneness to sin, that inability we have to really do the good things we always want to do.

I've always loved an old phrase that I learned many, many years ago and that is, "If you find a perfect church, be sure to join it. But remember that at that moment, it ceases to be perfect." Yes, you and I have a great need to come to terms with our imperfection. But I want to take the human condition a little further. I want to ask you to remember also to come to terms with the physical reality of your being.

I spoke a moment ago of coming to terms with the moral reality of who and what we are and accepting that as means of becoming holy. Now I want to go a little further and that means accepting the physical deterioration of who and what we are. I would not have been able to preach on that when I was a young priest. I know that. I'm afraid that when I was in my twenties and thirties, I probably never had a headache. I didn't resonate with Cardinal Newman when he thought he was arriving at the illuminative way in his meditations — he was really becoming mystical until he got migraine headaches. At that moment, he realized that he couldn't concentrate; he couldn't pray. All he could do was suffer a headache.

Coming to terms with being human in the physical sense is a very powerful thing and has to be a part of who and what we are. I know that I'm 62 now because when I watch a basketball game, I no longer see myself doing those great shots. That took a long time to come to. Somewhere in my life now, I have to accept the fact that humanness, that human condition, is also physical.

One of the great texts about that is Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 4, where he talks about that humanness. He says, "But we have this treasure, that wonderful grace of God in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies."

Just imagine what Paul is saying here. We carry in our bodies the death of Jesus — that means the physical is constantly deteriorating — so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. What a powerful text! Paul was coming to terms with old age, with that deterioration of the body, and somehow as that body begins to deteriorate, the life of Jesus can become more manifest, grace can become more manifest. What a powerful thought! This means that we never give up. We never sense that somehow it is over, but we make friends with that part of the mammon of iniquity that is in us.

There is one more thing I would like to mention and it is this. The more we are human; the more we love others; the more we permit others to love us; the more we reach out that way; the more we get hurt. There is no way in which we can live as human beings without suffering loss. You can't just cut yourself off and think, "That's the way to do it," because you don't grow as a human person. The only way we can live as humans is to risk, to risk relationships, to risk loving and then to get hurt and to have to suffer loss.

I can imagine Mary at the foot of the cross — what she must have suffered in loss, not only that her Son was dying, but also that she was being cut off from Him. That is a powerful loss. I'm sure anyone in love knows about that and can easily say, "amen."

If we make friends with the mammon of iniquity, then we will realize, more and more, God's role in our world and in our lives. The moment we can say "Yes, God has a part now in my life," is the moment when we can become truly holy people. Romano Guardini said, "The only way in which we can make friends with the mammon of iniquity is through God's grace." We can't cover it up. We can only let Christ lift it up. Then, as we die to self, He can live within us. It's a beautiful way of looking at life as we accept our deteriorations, limitations and losses. We never lose God's life in and with us.

Interview with Archbishop Rembert Weakland
Interviewed by David Hardin

David Hardin: Rembert, you were chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Letter on Economic Justice for all. It was controversial. Tell us a little bit about the controversy.

Rembert Weakland: It's bound to be controversial when you criticize capitalism in any way. Criticizing capitalism is like criticizing apple pie and motherhood. There are many in the United States who, if you say, "Capitalism could work better," immediately think you are a communist. We really talked about what you might call a mixed economy in which there are other values besides pure market, but people immediately labeled us. We were a little bit more positive about the role of government, not any particular government, but saying that government has a positive function. I think we would like to see politics get a good reputation. So, that was a part of the mix as well. That is why it became controversial and also, I believe, because so many didn't understand the principles upon which we had based our doctrines.

Hardin: I think it may be easier now. I think the world is beginning to realize that communism is a failed system so that particular buffer isn't useful. I think capitalism can now afford to be something that you and I might call compassionate. I think the compassion is missing.

Weakland: It is a good word for it. We said, "Any economic system was to be judged by what it did to people, for people and how it permitted people to participate." In other words, we put people first. It is the dignity of people that courts. The system must serve people. I hope that we can get to that now. In fact, it is a great moment for capitalism, if we don't become too full of pride thinking we have won and everything is going to go our way and don't realize that capitalism will never be the same again. The Japanese go at it a different way than we do. Third World debt means there are whole areas of the world that aren't a part of the fast-moving train. We have to learn not only how to turn the engine up but we have to learn to take care of the pollution.

Hardin: I think there is a concern about the issue of ethics and generosity in business. So many people see J.R. in "Dallas" as the model of a business person. It is not fair, and we need to get away from that.

Weakland: That's true and these programs are exported all over the world so that is given as the world image of what success in the United States means. We have to somehow get a Christian perspective on what success is all about. What does it mean to be successful? Does it mean that you have to have three cars when your dad had two? Does it mean that you have to have a bigger house than your parents? We need some way of getting our values keen again so that people understand what success really is.

Hardin: It is kind of a magical time for change in the world. I think Secretary Gorbachev's changes have to have struck us in very interesting ways.

Weakland: Very much so. I think now would be the time for us to study them very carefully so that we can see what ideals and aim are there and how they are going collide or be the same as the things that we want out of life. I think it's a great moment, but don't forget Japan, the whole Asian basin, all of these are partners now. We are no longer just the great super-power.

Hardin: I think that is important. And, the new European community, too. It will be as big an economy as ours.

Weakland: That is going to be great.

Hardin: The assignment here is how we operate as benign positive forces.

Weakland: My feeling is that what we now have to bring in to that whole mix is some values — values that come from our Judeo-Christian tradition. If we don't do it now, we have really lost a great moment.

Hardin: How do we can bring those values in? Will they come through education? How do we instill them? How do we get them going?

Weakland: We create people who are going to be full of values. You do that through education. You do that through all kinds of communication. You even do that preaching your Sunday sermons.

Hardin: It's been wonderful having you with us. It has just been a great joy.