Homily
for August 5, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
The Dangers of Wealth
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Gospel Luke 12:13-21 Someone in the
crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my
brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and
arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich,
one’s life
does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them
a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a
bountiful harvest. He asked himself,
‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I
shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to
myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for
many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ 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.”
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A few parishioners told me this
weekend that this Gospel
disturbed them. I think, in a few cases,
they were about to retire. They heard
theses words: “This is what I shall
do.” The rich man was going to build a
bigger barn. He even says to himself, “Now, as for myself, I have so
many good
things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” God
said to him, “You fool, this night your
life will be demanded of you.” Obviously, the scriptures this weekend
talk about wealth
and our attitude towards wealth and a lot of people, including myself,
are
challenged by what we hear. At the time
of Christ, there was a prevalent Jewish notion concerning health and
wealth. Many of the people didn’t
believe in an afterlife. This was
it. They thought that if you were
wealthy and healthy, then God was pleased with you and blessing you.
Conversely, if you were poor and sick, then
you probably did something to displease God and you were getting your
just desserts. Jesus addressed this time and time
again, this false
notion. He warns of the dangers of
wealth. As a matter of fact, when He
speaks concerning the judgment, which is very important to all of us,
He warns of
the dangers of pride and wealth more than the other sins. If you
remember the old catechism, there were
seven deadly sins, seven capitol sins, or seven cardinal sins. It
seems to me that He focuses on two of
them, warning us, and those are greed and pride. I’m not sure
that they’re all that
different. They hang around the same
place. He had some things to say about
those other deadly sins. I think He
mentioned envy in a few places. I don’t
know if He said anything at all about gluttony.
He talks about sexual sins, but mostly in terms of forgiving them.
Anger, He addresses. I think there is one parable on laziness,
about using our gifts well. They’re all
deadly of course, those sins, but some are more deadly than others.
The two deadliest ones, at least according to
reading the scriptures, are greed and pride.
Look at some of his noted parables.
Remember the parable of Lazarus and the Rich
Man? The rich man just ignored the poor
beggar, Lazarus, just didn’t even see him.
They both died. The rich man went
to hell and Lazarus to heaven. The rich
man begged Lazarus to dip his finger in the water to help his thirst.
In effect, God said, “No, you had your
chance. It’s too late now.” There’s the parable of the
rich, young man
who follows all of the commandments and says, “What else must I do?”
Jesus said, “Sell what you have and follow
me.” He went away sad, for he had many
possessions. This parable today is known
as the parable of the rich fool. Matthew
25, the quintessential parable on the judgment, says, in effect, that
if you
are charitable, you’ll get to heaven.
“When did I see you hungry? When
did I see you sick? When did I see you
hurt?” In other words, if you are
generous with your time, treasure and talents, then you will be judged
accordingly. You will be judged
well. Jesus said in this incredible sentence
here, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a
rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Perhaps some of you are absolutely
broke and don’t care
at all about money, so you can just smile through the rest of this.
Most of us are pretty blessed. Most of us are well off,
especially in terms
of the entire world. We need to
listen. Why is wealth so dangerous? First of all, wealth is
a good thing. It all comes from God, all kinds of sources
of wealth, so wealth itself is not evil.
It’s our attitude toward wealth that gets us in trouble. Paul
tells us in Colossians today that greed
is idolatry. In other words greed, to
lust after possessions, is idolatry.
What is idolatry? An idol is an
image used as an object of worship. The
dictionary tells us it is a false god.
It’s easy enough to make our possessions an idol that we worship
because
we spend so much time serving them. A
couple of weeks ago, the market was down 600 points. Many people
had agita, indigestion. They were on their computers all day.
I think it’s true that unless you are a stock
broker, if you spend more time in front of a computer looking at your
stuff
than you do in a church looking at Him, you might want to examine that.
You might want to change your
priorities. Wealth can make people competitive.
Forbes is always coming out with the richest
people in the world. No doubt some of
them are competitive. They can get
pretty nasty when they are competitive.
What’s the guy with that TV show?
Donald Trump. I don’t know him,
okay, but I don’t like him. He’s not
nice. Being competitive is not always
good. Father Joshua was here and he was
fascinated with the hummingbirds. I
believe hummingbirds only live in the Americas.
I don’t think they exist in Asia, Africa or Europe, so he had never
seen
them until he came here. They come in
March and they leave in October or so.
We have two feeders and they were right outside his window. They
are fascinating creatures. I had a red shirt on yesterday and I
was
sitting outside reading something and this hummingbird came up and
looked me
right in the eye and zoomed off. He
watched them and I said, “Father Joshua, soon the Rufus will come.”
There’s a hummingbird named Rufus. Rufus means rust. He’s
rust colored. They arrive in August. If you know the Rufus,
he’s the most violent of
the hummingbirds. He will chase all of
the hummingbirds away. A few days before
he left, Father Joshua came to see me and said, “Father, Rufus is here.”
This year there’s a broad wing hummingbird
that’s giving the Rufus all he can handle.
By the way, if you want to avoid that, you need to get about six
feeders
because then the dominant Rufus gets worn out.
You will see him after a couple of hours up in a tree, out of breath.
I only have two feeders because I like to see
them fight. No, not really. Wealth can make us feel independent
and that’s
dangerous. When you’re really feeling
pretty good about yourself, you sit back and say, “I’m okay. I’m
in good shape here.” Be careful.
We’re not independent. We depend
on God for every breath we take.
Frankly, we’re dependent on each other also. We need each other.
Imagine living here all by yourself. No doctors, no lawyers,
nobody working at
Smith’s. Nobody cleaning the streets,
keeping the lights going. We need each
other. We’re dependent. Wealth can replace our desire for
spiritual wealth. There’s only so much room in us. If we
fill it up with possessions and their
care, then there’s no room for God and for spiritual wealth. "That moth
does not
eat nor rust corrode." Again, it’s about
our attitude. The Bible does not say
money is the root of all evil. It says
the love of money is the root of all evil.
That’s from First Timothy. What
do we do? I have some suggestions. First, be generous to a
fault. Be generous.
Then be greater in your generosity.
I don’t think there’s anyone in hell that was generous. I really
can’t imagine it, so be
generous. The Lord loves a cheerful
giver. Be with those who have less. Spend time with them in
getting to know them
as friends, or co-workers, or whatever.
The psychologist Carl Menninger said, counseling a person who was about
to have a nervous breakdown, “Lock up your house, go across the
railroad
tracks, find someone in need, and invest yourself in helping that
person.” It’s true.
Recognize that you don’t own what you own, that, rather, you are a
steward of these gifts. We’re only here
for a little while. Everything we have
is from God. Be a good steward, generous
and fair. Also, recognize that you are
created with a great emptiness. When
you are conceived, there’s a part in you that craves union with God.
Because people don’t know that, they try to
fill that, or satiate that, thirst with possessions or pleasure or with
hobbies. It cannot be satisfied with
anything but an intimate relationship with God.
So, I’ll ask you, and I’ll do the same
this week, to take
some time and look at your attitudes toward wealth. How much do
you really need? When is enough, enough? What should you do
with your abundance?
All
that gives us pleasure is passing. All that brings us pain is
passing. That which is important is that which
is
eternal.