SUBJECT:
THE THEOLOGY, MORAL IMPLICATIONS, AND MEANING OF JESUS’ TEACHINGS ABOUT MONEY AND WEALTH
DISCUSSION:
On January 29, 2026, Fr. Emmanuel Lemelson penned an article on www.substack.com titled The $5,500 Gold Trap: Why the “Safe Haven” is the Ultimate Bezzle. It comes at a time when the price of gold and silver are at their highest prices since the late 1970s and early 1980s – prices unseen in forty-six years. At first glance, you determine the article is about “safety” and “risk” or “speculation” and “investment” – topics that saturate market commentaries every day.
But then, the reader comes to understand the article is not at all about these everyday mantras – the article is about two rarely discussed inquiries/considerations, matters that most investors hardly ever or never think about.
First, whether gold and silver investments (a/k/a “the fear trade”) are being moved higher on misleading or wrong narratives1 that these “hard assets” will preserve wealth and grow while all other “soft assets” and underlying currencies will lose value going forward. Second, whether the individual’s very act of investing in gold and silver is ipso facto altruistic, necessarily removing his/her money from productive assets into “the dead matter trap” meaning that “it produces no fruit, no rent, and no earnings” that contribute to society’s betterment. With the hope of creating wealth beyond productive means, it is the ultimate “under the mattress” investment.
For purposes of this paper, however, the narrative widens, focusing on the moral implications of buying any item of intrinsic value, whether it be gold and silver “hard assets” or any other “investment” for investment purposes, that does not in some way sustain growth and viability in commerce intended to benefit the greater good of society as opposed to entirely altruistic goals in and of themselves. This is the final topic presented in Fr. Lemelson’s article, discussing the valid and viable uses and purposes of money – society’s medium of exchange versus nefarious and wrongful uses:
This fixation on commodities over productivity isn’t just a bad trade; it’s a spiritual deviation, a “sterile abundance”. St. John Chrysostom taught that keeping excess wealth while others suffer is a form of “theft.” St. Basil the Great was even more direct: hoarding wealth is a primary cause of poverty, as common goods are seized and claimed by “preemption”. He likened the rich to one who takes the first seat in a theater and bars all others from entry.
The “Rich Fool” of the 21st century believes his “bigger barns” provide security. But his heart has become entombed in fear, or “vaulted”. The word “Ultimate” has been misappropriated, attaching a theological attribute to a lump of “dead matter”. The talent has been buried in the ground, a refusal to be fruitful for neighbor or God.
https://lemelson.substack.com/i/186198560/4-the-spiritual-pathology-vaulted-hearts
What is Money?
As a predicate to further discussion, we must answer the fundamental question of “what is money?”:
Money is widely defined as a medium of exchange to obtain the goods and services of others. As such, Mike Green of Simplify Asset Management, Inc. states: money is nothing more than a tool to legally cancel debt owed another for the consumption of the goods and services produced by the other person. Its a legal or customary medium of exchange where money is paid for goods and services to cancel debt.
Fr. Lemelson addresses the question of “what is money” within the context in Section 3 of his article, titled “The Metaphysics of Value: Aristotle vs. Plato.” Aristotle and Plato2 lived 300-400 years before the birth of Christ, so certainly, our Lord and Savior was well aware of human beings’ dichotomy of views about money and investments vis-à-vis societal needs.
Aristotle, a “metallist”, advocated that money must have intrinsic value in and of itself, as does gold and silver. Plato, a “nominalist”, saw money only as a social “symbol” – that money derives its value from government authority, not from its intrinsic value. Fr. Lemelson explains it this way: “While the crowd follows Aristotle into the vault, clinging to the belief that money must possess an intrinsic telos and physical purity to be “real,” the State has pivoted toward a Platonic “Noble Lie.”3 The primary question becomes whether the proper use of money is as an end in itself, an “unnatural” use, or is a means to promote its use, enjoyment, and greater good, i.e., its distribution.
Thoughts on the threshold inquiry of “what is money?” was proffered by T.K. Coleman of the largest podcast anywhere, The Minimalist: money is the “symbolic representation of our creative power.” You go from having no money to having money through “value creation” by exercising “stewardship” which modifies, transforms, rearranged the asset by making it more valuable to another and thus inducing the other person to engage in an exchange, or a quid pro quo (something for something). In that way, the essence of “money” is not defined in terms of what I have, but “what I do with what I have – my stewardship, use, and exchange. Money and wealth become vehicles to create value for yourself and others, not just as possessions, but to fulfill the command of Genesis, Ch. 1: 28: “God blessed [Adam and Eve and descendants] and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth.” Thus, God entrusted humanity as co-creators for their own sake and for other people – to be co-creators of the universe with God, the creator. Money is indeed a symbolic and meaningful representation of our cocreative power with our God, requiring stewardship, value creation, and exchange. That’s what money is in the terms of our creation and for our eternal redemption. What Jesus said about money is consistent with Genesis’ command.
What Did Jesus Say About Money?
So, what did Jesus say about money? How did Jesus respond to “valuable” accouterments of money – gold, silver, fine (expensive) wine and myrrh?
Matthew 25:14-30 presents Jesus’ parable about a rich man entrusting his money (“talents”, the largest unit of weight and monetary value, typically representing 75–100 pounds of precious metal; a massive sum of money, 16–20 years of wages) to his servants while he was gone. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one—to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Upon his return, two servants doubled the master’s wealth; the third “buried” the talent, returning to the master the only the original talent. To him, the master said: Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? To the other two he said: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.”
Luke 12:16-21 presents Jesus’ parable about “the rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. “He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest? This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, [N]ow, as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!’” “But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus, will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”
Take aways: God expects us to take responsibility for accrued money to invest and grow it; not to cling onto it, turning it into “a lump of dead matter.” Further, God expects us to make accrued money productive, not as an end in itself, but to promote its use, enjoyment, and greater good – it’s distribution.
How did Jesus and the Holy Family Treat money?
As for “valuable” accouterments of money – commodities like gold, frankincense, myrrh, fine wine, and pure nard, Jesus promoted their use, enjoyment, and greater good, not merely their perpetual preservation.
At His birth, the wise men from India presented the Christ Child with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Jesus may have been about two years old at the time of their visit. The family had moved from the stable into a more suitable “house” accommodation. The magi bowed down and worshiped the Child, presenting these extremely valuable gifts. Gold and costly spices like frankincense and myrrh were gifts reserved for high-ranking figures, such as kings and queens. 1 Kings 9:28;10:2. Gold was the most valuable of all precious metals and was the standard currency of the day; frankincense was complex, taking months to harvest and distill in the far-off regions of India, North Africa, or South Arriba; and myrrh’s production was time-consuming to process, and the raw material had to be imported from distant lands. Biblical scholars speculate that the Holy Family used these valuables to finance their trip to Egypt to escape Herod’s search for the child to kill him. Matthew 2:13.
At the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee, Jesus performed His first miracle turning water into fine wine at the urging of Mother Mary: “Do whatever He tells you.” John 2 1-11. The master of the banquet called the bridegroom aside saying, “[e]veryone brings out the choice wine first and the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink, but you have saved the best wine till now.” Again, the best wine was for consumption, not preservation.
Six days before the Passover meal and Good Friday, Jesus came to Bethany visiting Mary and Lazarus’ house whom He raised from the dead. While they were reclining at table with him, Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, “[w]hy was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” Jesus said, “[l]eave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial.” John 2; 1-11. Mary’s perfume was Spikenard, an extremely expensive product from the Himalayas in India worth 300 denarii and, yes – a year’s wages. Again, Jesus chose use over preservation.
What then is an appropriate balance between money’s preservation and consumption/use for us?
- Money is, in fact, a medium of exchange to obtain the goods and services of others. Nothing more; nothing less;
- When money is not being used as a medium of exchange, it is to be invested to earn a return, not “buried” or “put under the mattress;”
- So also, money carries with it a responsibility for society’s greater good and betterment today; don’t altruistically store it in “larger barns” for “tomorrow;”
- As a medium of exchange, happily receive gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; use the proceeds for the family to move from the stable into the house; for the preservation and improvement of life, security, and safety, and travel;
- Money is not defined in terms of what I have, but “what I do with what I have – my stewardship, use, and exchange;
- Use money to buy the fine wine; wonderfully fragrant perfume; and to indulge in life’s other enjoyable accouterments. Don’t make it a heap of dead matter or bury it under the mattress.
For your spiritual health and well-being,
Dan Steele
Note 1: Fr. Lemelson’s fraud charge, briefly stated, is that while the gold/silver rationale is to avoid the “paper” of fiat currency, the buyer himself through the trade necessarily executes a “paper” contract; that the commodity itself is valued in the very same currency, U.S. dollars, which the holder seeks protection against presuming its devaluation; and the math problem: March contract “open interest” represented demand for over 500 million ounces, meaning that every physical ounce of deliverable silver is currently backing roughly 17 ounces of “paper promises”.
Note 2: Plato and Aristotle were ancient Greek philosophers who lived during the 4th century
BCE. Plato lived approximately 428/427–348/347 BCE, and Aristotle, who was his student, lived 384– 322 BCE. Their lives and work defined the high point of classical Greek philosophy in Athens.
Note 3: The Platonic “noble lie” is Plato’s view of the sovereign’s role to convince citizens of the ideal city that their position in the hierarchy of society is natural. Earth, as their mother, fitted them with the respective skills and tools of each citizen’s station/role in the city.
