Life's Goal Storing Up Treasures
...In Heaven

Homily 08 04 2013
18th Sunday OT - C

View the Readings for this day

Today all three readings support one another, and so the liturgy of the Word speaks loudly and clearly. What is important in life? What lasts? St. Paul says Christ is everything!

The worried guy in the gospel ran up to Jesus. He was a tortured man, wronged, frustrated and diminished. His brother refused to give him his share of inheritance and he wanted his share. He waits for the answer and in the mornings was pestered by that idea as were his afternoons and nights. He was so upset that he turned over and over and couldn't sleep. He was so full of that question and that problem that he went all the way up to Jesus with only that idea in his head.

A teacher was talking to a class of little boys about the presence of God in daily life. He asked them if God is everywhere, and they correctly answered, "Yes." In an effort to get the matter closer to their own personal living, he named actual situations. Is God in the church? Yes. Is God in the home? Yes. On the street? Yes. Is God in the city prison? Silence. That one had them stopped. Finally one boy came up with as good an answer as I've heard. "Yes, God is there, but those fellows don't know it."

That was this man's trouble, wasn't it? God was in his life, but he didn't know it. God was in his fruits, God was in his fields, God was in his goods. God was everywhere except in his gratitude.

...And we wait too and we respond as he did. We all look at Jesus' face and slowly get the sinking feeling that Jesus just isn't interested.

Instead of remedying a situation Jesus tells the story about a rich man who builds barns to store his abundant harvest, and be merry, but he drops dead. . His attitude is that of vanity in the first reading.

We gaze at the teller of the tale. "Oh," the worried guy says, Jesus looks at him and at us. "So it is with those who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Seek God's Kingdom And Grow Rich In The Sight Of God

Jesus was concerned about what people's attachment to money was doing to them. Once He tried to jolt their complacency by telling them it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the Kingdom of God.

The words which confront us so often are Seek God's Kingdom and grow rich in the sight of God. Jesus said, "Avoid greed in all its forms."

Yet isn't it true that you have said that if you had that car, status, house, land or stocks, you would be freer, more able to give another shape to your life? You'd be more moral, more liberal, more faithful to people in your life.

Yet it is these things that take over our lives.

And Jesus told that other story; about a man who was already rich when he was blessed with an absolute bumper crop. And he decided to store it up for himself and build bigger barns and then he planned to take it easy and he did that, and didn't look for any further possibilities in this life because of the things he had.

He could have done so much and could have done all kinds of things and filled his life with joy but he did not. He bound himself. His goods bound him with very strong strings. He could not even give a real sense to his life or give sense to his death.

In the Gospel the Lord reminds us that Money may give us false security along with sensual happiness. We are challenged today to look inward, to remember that we too were raised to life with Christ. We experience a new world that leads us to help build the Kingdom of God

Paul in the second reading enumerates some vanities: fornication, passion, evil desires, lust. These may give a momentary and intense pleasure but they are vanities.

Rather, we should seek to be the New Person, created in God's own image.

Today, Jesus is again calling for discipleship from the apostles and he again wants us to be renewed in discipleship, and he's forming us, instructing us on the requirements of discipleship.

We're reminded that we can't take our fortunes with us and that we need to share with others and also be good stewards of our money, but in the end you can't take it with you.

George Carlin said, "The essence of life is trying to find a place to put all your stuff." In a real way he is probably right, though he was telling a joke.

A guy I knew owns mini-warehouses. Every time I'd see him, I'd ask, "How's business?" And with a big smile he'd say, "Business could never be better because America is full of stuff."

We have 32,000 self-storage businesses nationwide containing 1.3 billion feet of rentable space. One hundred million storage containers are sold by Rubbermaid each year so that we have some place to store our stuff.

In fact, in the papers some days, you can read that professional organizers will come to your house for as much as $75.00 per hour and organize your stuff for you so you can have a place to store it in a convenient manner.

Today's gospel tells us that life is more than your stuff. Life is more than your accomplishments.

Each of us is invited today to conversion, yet to manage our resources wisely. Stretch your heart and make it generous. Choose to help the Church and the Poor.

The Kingdom of God ultimately will open wide to us if we travel light. Let's pray for hearts of generosity.

For his part, the author of the first reading seems to have learned the great lesson before he died. He laments and bemoans the person who acquires many possessions only to realize that you cannot take possessions with you. There is nowhere to take it.

Each of us is invited to take to heart the words of William James an American philosopher and psychologist who said...

"The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts life."

jjl

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