August 4, 2019

18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time ( C)

“What a Fool Believes!”

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

Three friends were at a lake fishing when Jesus appeared, walked across the water, and joined them in the boat. When they were finally able to speak, the first fellow asked humbly, "Jesus, I've suffered from constant back pain ever since I was wounded in the war...could you help me?" Jesus touched the man's back and the pain left him. The second man suffered from a severe eye disorder and so he asked Jesus to cure his eyesight. Jesus smiled, touched his eyes and the man was granted perfect eyesight. When Jesus turned to the third friend, the guy raised his hands and cried "Don't touch me! I'm on long term disability."
 
How money can affect our lives! Today Jesus offers us a lesson on our attitude and use of money, wealth and possessions. The lesson was prompted when a man asked Our Lord to intervene in a friend feud over inheritance. He is confident that the Lord would side with him but he receives not a judgment but a parable. At first, this rich man seems rather admirable. He appears to be a “self-made man,” intelligent and enterprising. We might even praise him for his foresight and prudence in his desire to have a comfortable existence both in the present and the future. Isn’t this something we all strive to do?  
 
The problem is not in having money, because many necessary and good things flow from it. The problem lies in what we do with money and what it does to us. In the parable we hear the rich man’s mental dialog. He plans to relax, “eat, drink, and be merry.” But God calls him a fool because while he was wealthy and thought his plans were complete, the plans were in reality incomplete because he lacked what was most essential—God.
 
The rich man’s thoughts are devoid of any reference to God, to the temple, to others. What words dominate his thoughts: “What shall I do? My harvest...my barns...my grain...I shall say to myself, you have so many good things...relax, eat, drink and be merry.” We can be sure that when our life is arranged around “me, myself and I,” God and neighbor tend to go to the bottom of the list for our time and attention. More often, they don’t “make the list.”
 
Wealth is not a sin but it can be very dangerous to our spiritual life and our salvation. Pope Francis often echoes this truth when he calls attachment to money, “destructive.” He warns that money changes people and that possessions can become obsessions. Qoheleth tells us that this is “a vanity and a great misfortune” that results in an “anxiety of the heart.” St. Paul exhorts us to “put to death the greed that is idolatry” and to keep our eyes on heaven.
 
Possessions are fleeting. The day will come for all of us when we shall have to leave all that we own. This is what the rich man forgot. The Lord says, “This night your life will be demanded of you, and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” Pope Francis said, “I have never seen a moving van behind a funeral procession.”
 
Our Lord’s lesson is simple and powerful. Don’t be foolish. Use wealth responsibly and to do good. Possessions do not follow us into the next life. A priest once recommended that we often read our “Book of Our Values.” He lifted up his check book. St. Cyprian of Carthage was perhaps thinking of the foolish rich man when he said:

“Why do you pile up the burden of your patrimony,
that the richer you are in the sight of the world,
the poorer you may become in the sight of God?
Divide your returns with your God;
share your gains with Christ;
make Christ a partner in your earthly possessions
that He may make you a co-heir
of His heavenly kingdom.”