My Seven-Minute-Homily, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time year C, August 4th 2013
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Book of Ecclesiastes 1.2; 2. 21-23; Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians 3.1-5, 9-11
and Gospel of St. Luke 12. 13-21
The First Reading, the Book of Ecclesiastes teaches us a lot of common sense and is very realistic about living daily life. Today we hear about vanity, that is, about the uselessness of so many things in this life, especially stress and preoccupation about what will happen to us or what we can acquire and what we can do in our ordinary life. Any stress or preoccupation is really useless, vanity in the sense of this reading.
The second reading today, from the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians, can provide a path through this when it tells us: Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. St. Paul offers us a full view of this life which has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, with the promise of full glory. St. Paul urges the Colossians to review their lives in Christ and to “seek the things that are above… not the thing that are on earth”. In the renewal, there is no longer Jew or Creek, circumcised and uncircumcised, slave and free. Life in Christ breaks through these barriers of divisions.
In today’s Gospel we are reminded that indeed there truly is something else that is infinitely more valuable, precious and enriching than the mere accumulation of wealth for our own pleasure and satisfaction. That something else is love of neighbor. Luke immediately follows today’s story of greed with two stories from Jesus. The first one teaches us to trust God to provide for our needs, and not worry about building barns and other storehouses. The second story focuses on almsgiving, the only treasure that cannot be stolen because almsgiving produces a treasure that is truly lodged in heaven. As one wise man said, Greed isolates us in our own private worlds, which we have built to protect ourselves from the material and spiritual needs of others. The key to avoiding the sin of vanity is to detach oneself from riches and their accumulation, simply by giving to the poor. This is the way to make ourselves rich toward God.
I would like to share with you a little bit about the meaning of rich toward God.
For one thing, to be rich toward God means to give thanks and praise to God for all the good things in life. What does the rich man do? Not a single word of thanks to God, who made the sun shine and the rain to fall (Mt 5:45) so that his land produced abundantly (Lk. 12:16).
Secondly, he is not rich toward God because he does not share with others the wealth God has given to him. God has given the earth to everyone, so that there might be bread enough for all. There are so many people starving in the global South not because God hates them and loves us, or because they are stupid and lazy and we are smart and hard-working, no: one reason they are starving is because we do not share our wealth with them as God intended. Those who do not share with the poor are not rich toward God; they are fools and God will demand back the lives he lent them and insist upon an account of their misspent wealth.
Inspired by the Gospel, Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church teaches us to love the poor because they are our brothers and sisters, they should be shared from the money, the material things, and from the possession we have. When we share with them what we have, we make ourselves rich before the eyes of God.
2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity" When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.
2462 Giving alms to the poor is a witness to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.
2463 How can we not recognize Lazarus, the hungry beggar in the parable (cf. Lk. 17:19-31), in the multitude of human beings without bread, a roof or a place to stay? How can we fail to hear Jesus: "As you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me" (Mt 25:45)?
Jesus reminds us: “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Lk. 12:15). Money and even life don’t belong to us at all, but to God, the Creator and the Master of the universe. Always remember that we are just a steward of God. When we give to others, we also return to God, the root and source of our life, so that he can continue to bless our land abundantly, to bless us with true and lasting happiness.
Yes, when we are rich toward God, and we share with others, we offer to God something so small and simple, like a loaf of bread or a cup of wine, and in his infinite generosity he gives us everything in return. He gives us himself in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.
Father Great Rice
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Book of Ecclesiastes 1.2; 2. 21-23; Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians 3.1-5, 9-11
and Gospel of St. Luke 12. 13-21
The First Reading, the Book of Ecclesiastes teaches us a lot of common sense and is very realistic about living daily life. Today we hear about vanity, that is, about the uselessness of so many things in this life, especially stress and preoccupation about what will happen to us or what we can acquire and what we can do in our ordinary life. Any stress or preoccupation is really useless, vanity in the sense of this reading.
The second reading today, from the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians, can provide a path through this when it tells us: Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. St. Paul offers us a full view of this life which has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, with the promise of full glory. St. Paul urges the Colossians to review their lives in Christ and to “seek the things that are above… not the thing that are on earth”. In the renewal, there is no longer Jew or Creek, circumcised and uncircumcised, slave and free. Life in Christ breaks through these barriers of divisions.
In today’s Gospel we are reminded that indeed there truly is something else that is infinitely more valuable, precious and enriching than the mere accumulation of wealth for our own pleasure and satisfaction. That something else is love of neighbor. Luke immediately follows today’s story of greed with two stories from Jesus. The first one teaches us to trust God to provide for our needs, and not worry about building barns and other storehouses. The second story focuses on almsgiving, the only treasure that cannot be stolen because almsgiving produces a treasure that is truly lodged in heaven. As one wise man said, Greed isolates us in our own private worlds, which we have built to protect ourselves from the material and spiritual needs of others. The key to avoiding the sin of vanity is to detach oneself from riches and their accumulation, simply by giving to the poor. This is the way to make ourselves rich toward God.
I would like to share with you a little bit about the meaning of rich toward God.
For one thing, to be rich toward God means to give thanks and praise to God for all the good things in life. What does the rich man do? Not a single word of thanks to God, who made the sun shine and the rain to fall (Mt 5:45) so that his land produced abundantly (Lk. 12:16).
Secondly, he is not rich toward God because he does not share with others the wealth God has given to him. God has given the earth to everyone, so that there might be bread enough for all. There are so many people starving in the global South not because God hates them and loves us, or because they are stupid and lazy and we are smart and hard-working, no: one reason they are starving is because we do not share our wealth with them as God intended. Those who do not share with the poor are not rich toward God; they are fools and God will demand back the lives he lent them and insist upon an account of their misspent wealth.
Inspired by the Gospel, Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church teaches us to love the poor because they are our brothers and sisters, they should be shared from the money, the material things, and from the possession we have. When we share with them what we have, we make ourselves rich before the eyes of God.
2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity" When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.
2462 Giving alms to the poor is a witness to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.
2463 How can we not recognize Lazarus, the hungry beggar in the parable (cf. Lk. 17:19-31), in the multitude of human beings without bread, a roof or a place to stay? How can we fail to hear Jesus: "As you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me" (Mt 25:45)?
Jesus reminds us: “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Lk. 12:15). Money and even life don’t belong to us at all, but to God, the Creator and the Master of the universe. Always remember that we are just a steward of God. When we give to others, we also return to God, the root and source of our life, so that he can continue to bless our land abundantly, to bless us with true and lasting happiness.
Yes, when we are rich toward God, and we share with others, we offer to God something so small and simple, like a loaf of bread or a cup of wine, and in his infinite generosity he gives us everything in return. He gives us himself in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.
Father Great Rice