Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Ps 70 (69):2, 6 O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me! You are my rescuer, my help; O Lord, do not delay.

Collect Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness, that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide, you may restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Ecclesiastes 1:2:2:21-23; Psalm 89; Colossians 3:1-5.9-11; Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? Then he said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. (Luke 12:13-21)

True Security If there is one thing the modern world encourages us to do, it is to be successful materially and financially. We are encouraged to make good money, to have a good home, to have a good car, plenty of possessions, a good business, a career that earns social approval, and in general to attain temporal success and material security. Of course, to a point these are valid goals. God does want us to gain and use those things we need in life. But the danger is that in seeking material goals we can become materialistic, which is to say we can make material enjoyment and security the goal of our life. These are the values of one who believes that this world is all that there is. It is this danger of materialism against which St Paul warns us in the second reading, and he expresses it clearly. He says “you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-5.9-11). What are the things that are in heaven? Christ gives us his answer in The Lord’s Prayer. In it we pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Looking for the things that are in heaven means above all looking for God’s will to be done as perfectly as possible in our daily life, just as it is done perfectly in heaven. St Paul explains in specific terms what this involves. He says, ‘That is why you must kill everything in you that belongs to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshiping a false god; and never tell each other lies.’ In St Paul’s terminology, to commit any of these sins is to have one’s thoughts on the things of earth. He especially emphasises one of those sins: greed. He says that greed “is the same thing as worshiping a false god.” We are warned against devoting ourselves to material possessions in such a way that those possessions take centre stage in our lives, and displace God.

So then, are we striving to serve God, doing His will day by day here on earth, just as it is done in heaven? Indeed, this should be the principal objective in all we do to earn our living, and in the use of our material possessions. We ought not be spending our lives simply to gain absolute material security, a security based on material wealth which, we hope, will leave us dependent on nothing and no-one. In any case, absolute material security is an illusion. It is impossible that material things make us absolutely secure, for it is only God who can be man’s true security. This is exactly what today’s Gospel teaches us. ‘Watch, and be on your guard,’ our Lord said, ‘against avarice of any kind’ (Luke 11:13-21). Christ’s warning is against every kind of avarice. ‘For,’ he says, ‘a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.’ That is so obviously the case, if only we give some attention to the matter. No matter how secure a person might seem to be financially, no matter how successful that person may have been in life from a material point of view, that person could drop dead any instant. He is not secure. And have we not seen this happen time and again over the years with leading businessmen or politicians? Years back, at the height of his business fame, one of Australia’s most successful and wealthy businessmen suddenly died at 52, and was cremated. He could not take a cent with him, and all there was left were ashes. What did he go to God with? Years back, an Australian Prime Minister went swimming, and that was the last that was ever seen of him. Our Lord puts this point vividly in his story of the rich farmer (Luke 12:13-21). “There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, ‘What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them. Then I shall be able to say to myself, I am completely secure for good now. I can now settle back and enjoy myself.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! You do not realize that this is the last day of your life. And when you go tonight, all this stuff you have worked for, someone else will have it.’” He was, God said, very foolish.

The fulfilment of God’s will is the source of our security and our true wealth. Let us pray insistently that we make it such. Of course we must devote ourselves to our business or profession or calling in life, whatever it may be. But the purpose of our efforts should be that what God wants done, is done. It is this that gives us security here on earth and for ever in heaven. It is this which ought inspire our prayer and our principal petitions before God. It is this which is the world’s security. Let us all be on guard against the illusions of false security which can infect our whole mind and corrupt our religion. As St Paul says, let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

(E.J.Tyler)

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