Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Jesus tells this parable in response to a request to settle a dispute over an inheritance problem, an issue we might be tempted to think is a contemporary problem. Jesus understands the dispute; he seems to categorize it in the context of how much it enough or will the human heart ever be satisfied? He seems to have put his finger on the crux of the problem - Greed! This parable is intended to remind us that we are more than what we possess.
Two thousand years have passed and I don’t know if we have heeded Jesus’ warning about greed. The blockbuster movie “Wall Street” was released in 1987. Remember the famous scene in which Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) spews that classic line - “Greed is good…greed in all of its forms has marked the upward surge of mankind.” Well, if nothing else, these intervening years has dispelled that myth. Oh, it has worked for the top 1%, but not for everyone else. We have all witnessed and experienced the horrific damage that greed has spawned around the world. It has shattered the lives and dreams of millions of people. It has unleashed a cynicism and hopelessness that is running rampant today. It is causing discontent and worry in the hearts of many mothers and fathers seeking to improve the quality of life for their children. No, greed is not good, not now, not ever. It is a capital sin, one that can ruin not only this life, but steal from us that eternal life that Jesus won for us by his death and resurrection.
St. Paul writes that our lives are, “hidden with Christ in God.” If we place our hope and trust in him, we no longer have to, “store up treasures for” ourselves, for we can claim the inheritance Jesus has secured for us, eternal life that already has begun to run its course.
Enjoy the Day!
Deacon Tom
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