Eighteenth Sunday
in Ordinary Time Year C
Over my priestly life, I have been stunned by how
many people come to see me to get my assistance in drawing up wills to protect
their inheritance from potential family disputes or where I’ve been roped in to
arbitrate ongoing disputes among siblings over inheritance. I had thought I had
left my past profession behind me. I’ve seen fraternal ties severed,
individuals disinherited, families divided, sometimes for decades, because of
such contentious disputes. People say, “blood is thicker than water,” but I think
it's correct to say that, “money is thicker than blood.” I’m reminded of Jesus’
response to the disgruntled sibling who requested that the Lord command his
brother to give him his share of the inheritance. I would offer the contesting
parties a paraphrase of the rhetorical question used by Jesus, “My friend, who
appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?” and add “I wasn’t
ordained for this.”
Today, the pursuit of wealth has become inevitable—
almost as if the desire to be rich is already a forgone conclusion in our
lives. All sin can be summarised in a sense by a desire to place possessions,
or money, and ultimately oneself over other people, including one’s family
members. Everything that we do seems directed to this end –
our education system, our career, our courtship and marriage, our family life
and not wanting to sound morbid, even death is not immune from a discussion on
the topic of finances – how do I distribute my wealth when I’m gone? How do my
loved ones reap the payouts from my life insurance, which is a polite way of
saying, how do they benefit from death or how could I benefit from theirs?
The prevailing view is that wealth is good, that it
should be pursued, that material possessions and riches enhance our enjoyment
in life, and that wealth provides opportunity to find greater fulfillment in
life. Today’s gospel exposes this myth and reveals that the pursuit of riches
is based on a faulty premise. It is based on the incorrect rationale that the
presence of money is always good—that it always brings benefit into our lives.
This is not always the case. Once our basic needs have been met, money
contributes very little to our overall happiness and well-being. When the rich
man of the parable experienced a bumper crop, he had to worry about building
bigger barns and ensuring that his wealth is securely protected from both the
forces of nature and theft. It would appear, that his wealth brought him more
anxiety and exposed him to greater dangers. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once put it,
“money often costs too much.”
It is interesting to note how this prevailing view
has also influenced our spirituality. The popularity of the gospel of prosperity,
“give to God and He will bless you with so much more,” attests to this. Notice how
most of the prayers deal with worldly matters. “O Lord, fix my finances, fix my cancer, fix my spouse, fix this or that
situation.” None of these things are wrong to pray about, but notice the
worldly and passing quality of most of it. It is almost as if we were saying to
God, “Just make this world a better
and comfortable place for me. Give me enough health, friends, money and
creature comforts, and that’s all I need, I’ll just stay here forever!”
I am sure God waits for the day when we will finally say from our heart, “Lord,
let me see you face to face …. Help me hunger and desire for your presence.”
Ironically, these are things which we wish to postpone or even avoid
altogether.
Jesus didn’t come from heaven to earth to settle
inheritance disputes but to make us aware of a totally different type of
inheritance. He gave an important antidote as medicine against this spirit of
acquisitiveness that leads to all types of sins: “Watch, and be on your
guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what
he owns, even when he has more than he needs.” He then tells a parable about
the rich fool who was blessed with a bountiful harvest who instead of
sharing any of his good fortune with those who were hungry after the harvest of
grain had filled up the barns he already had, decided to tear down his barns
and build bigger ones in an unbelievable building project of selfishness. The
man egocentrically commends himself for his good fortune. And that led to other excesses as he convinced
himself to “take things easy, eat, drink and have a good time!” And he had a
rude awakening coming. That night he would die and little good would his wealth
do to him. As the first reading taken from Ecclesiastes reminds us, vanity
would be our downfall. This is when Jesus drew the moral of the story: “So it
is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in
the sight of God.”
The parable thus becomes an apt description of our
modern culture. We’re living in a culture of hoarding. We obsess about storing
treasures or even junk up for ourselves, constantly building new storage
facilities to house the stuff that can no longer fit in our homes, rather than
giving the stuff we don’t need away. To all of us in this culture, Jesus calls
us to become rich in the sight of God. In the end, nothing matters more to God
than you,
yourself, and that you be made ready to be with him forever. Salvation is our
true wealth. Money, who cares? Health? That passes anyway, as does the body,
and worldly glories. Sic transit Gloria
mundi, thus passes the glory of the world. But the soul? Now here is
something that matters particularly to God.
No
amount of material wealth, power or prestige will make us permanently happy. On
the contrary, the wealthy and powerful are often people whose interior has
become barren and turned in on itself, a place where peace and happiness are as
absent as rain in the desert. Their ground is spiritually parched, and material
treasure provides no healing balm to alleviate the pain. Material wealth is not
a sin per se, of course, but it does not lead to the happiness we unceasingly
crave and seek.
What does lead to permanent and lasting happiness? As Jesus points out,
becoming “rich in the sight of God” is the key. When we place God first, and
love our neighbor as another self, we soon begin to experience a perceptible,
lasting happiness that is not of this world. It is “other-worldly” because it
does not originate from our interior, from creatures or material possessions,
but from God, whose love fills us with true and lasting peace, joy and
happiness. The second reading from St. Paul reminds us to put aside our earthly
desires and to focus on being risen in Christ. To live as Jesus lived, that is,
a life of holiness, is to store up eternal treasure. This treasure is lasting
and permanent, and cannot be tarnished or diminished by anything in the world.
In loving God we become free, truly free! We may boast of no personal wealth attached
to our name, but we can simply boast of this, we are “rich in the sight of
God!” And that would make us the wealthiest man or the wealthiest woman in this
world!
