Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time_C - Real Wealth_073122

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Real Wealth”

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

St. Paul instructs us to “Think of what is above, not what is on earth.” Good, practical advice to build for ourselves a spiritual legacy but, unfortunately, one in direct conflict with our earthly way of thinking. Take the man in the parable today. He is not just successful; he is very successful. He is having a bumper crop and so he makes, on the surface, a wise decision to tear down the existing barns and build bigger ones so he can store much more of his harvest. Consequently, he will acquire more and more wealth to provide a more and more safe and secure future for himself and his family. Seems logical, doesn’t it. I mean he doesn’t come across as a prepper... one preparing for the global, world-wide disaster...Yet, rather than being the poster child for ingenuity and entrepreneurial enterprise, this parable ends with this enterprising farmer standing before God (to whom we must all render an account - Rom 14:12) about his spiritual net worth, or lack thereof.

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

Visit my Blog at: www.deacontomwrites.blogspot.com

And tune into the www.deaconspod.com to hear a contemporary Catholic conversation exploring the treasures our faith has to offer.

Recommended reading: Into the Silent Land by Fr. Martin Laird O.S.A takes us into the world of contemplative prayer in the first of three books on this subject.

Recommended resources: Check into the resources of the Catholic Apostolate Center at:

 https://www.catholicapostolatecenter.org/