18th Sunday

18th Sunday Ordinary
August 1, 2004
"Vanity of vanities!... All things are vanity! Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property." (Ec 1:2, 2:21-23) "Think of what is above, not of what is on earth." (Col 3:1-5, 9-11) "But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong? Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God." (Luke 12:13-21)
The readings this week all address one of the most difficult of all spiritual precepts: the futility of our tenacious pursuit of and attachment to material wealth. Jesus, responding to someone asking him to adjudicate a dispute about an inheritance, roughly rebukes him and then tells this parable about the man who was elated about how much wealth he had amassed, and his anxiety about preserving it all. His reply does not make the pursuit of earthly and spiritual goods mutually exclusive. But, he warns about excessive anxiety over how much we need, and where we place our security and ultimate hopes. Apparently, this was no less a problem two millennia ago than it is now. We all know that we cannot take our accumulated property and wealth with us, but we seem to continue to act as if we can.
Almost every day I check my little retirement account, marking minor ups and downs with delight or anxiety depending on the direction of the changes in the market. Then I realize it could all go away in a moment, and the Spirit reminds me about where my real wealth is. Recently a family we know lost their home in a fire in which no one was hurt. The couple reportedly said, once over the shock, that it was a great loss, but that it was only things. I and they know, when pressed by the reality of the uncertainties of life, that the only thing that endures is love. This is what "matters to God", the only real treasure.
Many of us have been following the recent financial difficulties in the church, brought on by lawsuits connected with the aftermath of clergy sexual abuse. We worry about what will happen to the properties and material goods which we have worked hard to acquire for the sake of the mission of the church. In our anxiety we may be tempted to blame the victims or the perpetrators for creating these problems.
Jesus' words "you fool..." can as easily apply to the church as to individuals. In truth the church's possessions can as easily be an obstacle as they are a means to the spread of the gospel of Christ. Our history is complete with abundant examples of this fact. Reform and repentance is costly and usually only happens when we are forced into it by unavoidable circumstances. We may be forced, by our own shortsightedness, and the demands of justice to actually live without many things we have thought necessary.
Loris Buccola