"Take care against greed"
Luke 12: 13-21
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080325.cfm
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,
God for ever and ever.
Amen
(Collect for Sunday)
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As we sometimes hear the wonderful and thought-provoking
parables of Jesus, we will get the point easily. This Sunday’s story of the wealthy landowner
is one obvious example. The lesson we
see is, as we often say, you can’t take it with you. How true that is. But if you can’t take it with you, you can
pass it on. The blessings received can
move forward to another generation. After all, I’ve never seen a hearse with a
U-Hall.
So, that lesson may be obvious. But often the deeper lesson of the parable is
what Jesus does NOT say. For example, the
landowner was very proud of the fruits of his labor. He refers to “my harvest”
and “my grain.” While that may be true to a certain extent, the story begins as
Jesus states: “. . . a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.” God created the land that is planted with the
power of generation in the soil to produce life. Therefore, the real harvest is what God has
given and what God has done. The farmer
had nothing to do with producing the land but rather benefitted from what God
gave to him. Rather than greed, the proper perspective of the rich man should
have been gratitude for what God has done.
The true owner of the land is God not the rich man as such. Jesus does not condemn the man for being rich
but for having the wrong perspective. For losing sight of where true wealth can
be found.
And that leads us to the fundamental lesson of our
readings this weekend. That life is essentially not about the value of what
possessions, fame, wealth or power can bring us but rather about perspective in
how we use the things of this life for the common good. St. Paul in our second
reading from Colossians speaks of the “greed that is idolatry.” In other words,
we lust for something so much that it becomes a kind of god to us. We worship
what we have by acquiring increasingly more.
The man worked hard to produce an abundant harvest but
his whole perspective was misguided.
Like the story about a conversation between a young and ambitious man
and an older man who understood life:
Silence
. . .
Standing there talking to himself, contemplating where
to hide and store everything for his own security conveys, I think a very
lonely person. By his life of greed, has
cut himself off from God and others. As strong as it does sound, he was a fool
who was blinded by his own fortune.
Our first reading from the wisdom book of Ecclesiastes speaks to this reality. Essentially saying that one may work hard with wisdom and care for what he has but in the end, he leaves the result of all that hard work to someone who didn’t do anything to earn it. All things are “vanity” we read from this passage. In other words, the stuff of this life passes away, so it begs the question, is that all there is?
So, rather than seeing this as “my crops” he forgot that it was given not for him but for the benefit of the community around him. While there is no fault in reaping an abundant harvest and enjoying the success of one’s labor, we must realize that an abundance is not given for one alone but to be shared for the common good. While we may all hope to win a multi-million-dollar lottery and live a luxurious life style, just imagine all the good for others that such a large harvest of funds could also accomplish.
This is like the parable about Lazarus the beggar and
the rich man who stood begging at his door or the wonderful character of
Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens Christmas story whose own greed forced
them into isolation. Jesus was astute at reading the real motives of the human
heart and the temptations we all face.
The greatest surprise then is God coming unexpectedly
for the soul of the rich man. With all this piled up wealth, the man was so
blinded by his dream of an easy life and complete security that he forgot that
all things would pass away. Since he had
missed the point of everything dealing with all as gift and what really makes
life meaningful and purposeful he was completely closed to God’s grace. By
centering his life on greed he had broken all the relationships he had with
others and with God.
Our gathering for the Holy Eucharist is a sign of God's overwhelming abundance: the gift of Christ poured out for us and a reminder that he has given this to us and not the other way around. We could never in a lifetime of piled up wealth, equal what God has done for us. Without Christ as food for our journey, we might well become the most selfish of all people. Our Christian faith should naturally lead us to recognize the advantages we may have and the opportunities given to us to share that no one will be without want. Jesus said, “the poor you will have always with you.” In a sense, that is good because they remind us of our duty to give away a portion of what we have for the common good and to eliminate the suffering of poverty.
The point of all this may be to ask, “Does life
consist of what I have or what I give away?” The only true life lived as a
Christian is a life of service towards others after Jesus own example.
Making the same point beautifully, I heard the other
day of a wise and inspired perspective made by the late Cardinal Francis George
of Chicago in 2015 shortly before he died.
I think if we remember anything about our readings this Sunday in our
walk with the Lord as true disciples it would be the inspired wisdom of Cardinal
George when he observed: “The only things you take with you in the life to come
are those you’ve given away on earth.”
Since you can’t take it with you, one can at least
pass it on.
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