"A Bag with Holes" or a Life that heals "Holes"

In today's first reading, Haggai 1: 1-8, the Lord, through the prophet Haggai, asks us to consider our ways: 

     "You have sown much, but have brought in little;
     you have eaten, but have not been satisfied;
     you have drunk, but have never been exhilarated;
     you have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed;
     and whoever earned wages
     earned them for a bag with holes in it."

Sound familiar?  If I sow little, I will reap little, the Scriptures tell me.  If my sowing does not include seeds of love, compassion, mercy and reconciliation, then I will experience dissatisfaction,  an abundance of down times, and a cold heart! Like Herod, in today's Gospel, Luke 9: 7-9, I will be perplexed about Jesus, His teaching and the deeds He is doing: healing the sick, welcoming and forgiving sinners, raising the dead to life, and challenging the teachers of the law. The "wages" Jesus earned were sinners returning to the Father, the dead being raised, the deaf hearing and the blind seeing, cripples walking, lepers cleansed, the sick being healed!  He was not filling "a bag with holes in it"; He was healing "holes" that left people vulnerable to physical and spiritual illnesses!  He was a being-for-others and that way of living is full of grace, satisfies, exhilarates and wraps us in the warmth of God's Spirit.