Oh, what a reading!

Have you checked out today's first reading? It's from St.Paul's letter to Timothy.
Apart from the continuing inspiration that the name "Timothy" gives me ("the one who fears God", but in the theological meaning of the word "fears"), I saw two very interesting messages.

First:
Whoever teaches something different
and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the religious teaching
is conceited, understanding nothing,
and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes.
From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions,
and mutual friction among people with corrupted minds,
who are deprived of the truth,
supposing religion to be a means of gain.

Do you know anyone like that? No, not just the many Christians who are stuck in the myriad of protestant groups, but even the many Catholics who claim to not agree withe certain basic teachings of the Church and delude themselves to be doing something great by their dissension.
St. Paul tells us, in not so many words, that they "understand nothing". Wow! Are we in that boat too? Maybe a good examination of conscience can be useful for us here, especially since when we disagree we usually tend to say that we do it because our conscience tells us to. But is our conscience well formed and well informed? Hmmmm.

Second:
For the love of money is the root of all evils

Notice, not "money", but the "love of money". What a difference! Money is a tool and, like all tools, it is up to us how it is used.
Do we acquire it because we love having it? In that case we are probably taking it away from other people who may use it better, or are squandering it in activities that are destructive to us and others.
But if we acquire it as the result of the good work we have done and if we use it for good purposes, then we don't really love it, do we? We are just moving it around and making it do the work it is supposed to do.

So, which one will it be for you and me?