July 31st 2022.  Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   Luke 12,13-21

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

 

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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.”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

 

SUMMARY

In the Gospel, a man asks Jesus to sort out an inheritance dispute with a family member. Jesus replies, “Who appointed me as your judge?” It might seem like Jesus is saying, “Don't bother me with matters such as these!” But in reality, the answer to the question, “Who appointed me as your judge?” is “God the Father!” All disputes over property, all concerns about material things, must be looked at from the perspective of God the Father. The Father appointed Jesus as judge and Lord of history. The crucial criterion of decision-making is: “How will this decision look on judgement day?” In fact, Jesus then goes on to tell a parable which serves to emphasize this very point. A man has an immense harvest and begins to plan the rest of his life as if his destiny were in his own hands. But he failed to take God into account, and died that very night. The ultimate criterion for action is God! How will this decision look from the perspective of eternity? What will it mean on judgement day? When the man in the crowd asks, “Tell my brother to give me half of the property”, Jesus in truth is replying to him, “What is more important to you, the property or your brother? Loving your brother, sharing with him, forgiving him for not sharing with you – these are the things that will matter in eternity! All the rest - money, property, inheritance - are so much rubbish that will pass away”. Now, if we live this life of detachment from the world, trusting in God as our first priority, does that mean that we live as aliens in this world? No! It is when we detach ourselves from property that we align ourselves with the things that really matter! The relationship with my brothers and sisters is more important than any material inheritance.

 

1. Does Jesus abdicate responsibility and refuse to get involved in the dispute between the brothers over the inheritance? No, Jesus is the judge of all things and wishes to address this question of greed on a much deeper level.

This Sunday's liturgy opens with the proclamation at the beginning of the Book of Ecclesiastes which says "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity". All is “vapour” according to the Hebrew text, everything falls apart, only lasts a short time. The risk that we all have is to live and to go after vain things that have no consistency, have no duration. All the hardships of humanity can result in nothing, in disappointment. It is very important to consider the danger we all run of being obsessed with small things and never making the leap of quality to more significant things, those that last, those that are worth living. This is counterbalanced by the Gospel of Luke, which in its twelfth chapter tells of a man who interrupts Jesus while he is speaking. Jesus is preaching, and this man tells him what he ought to be  talking about, that is, instead of continuing with his message, Jesus should tell his brother to share the inheritance with him. Jesus replies: "Who appointed me judge and mediator over you?" This text is often read as a denial of responsibility on the part of Jesus, as if he is saying, "What do I have to do with your affairs?" But the fact is that the Lord Jesus IS judge and mediator over us! Surely, what Jesus intends to do here is not to abdicate responsibility as a judge but to take right judgement all the way to the end. Jesus is really saying, “Be careful and keep away from ALL greed”. There is the greed of the man who does not share his wealth with his brother, and there is also the greed of someone who denounces his brother in front of everyone. He has so much love for money that he is willing to publicly shame his brother.

 

2. Jesus calls us to enrich ourselves in the sight of God, not in material things.

The problem is that these two men have the same problem: one does not share the money with the other, the other denounces his brother because of the money. They both have the same mentality. Material goods are more important than the fraternal relationship. How many divisions there are in families for reasons of money! How often it is decided that it is more important to pursue economic justice than to safeguard brotherly love! Unfortunately, there is no family that is not touched by this sort of division. At this point, Jesus gives the example of a man who has a huge harvest and what does he do? He demolishes his warehouses, builds larger ones where he will collect all the grain and its goods, and then, only afterwards “‘My soul, you have many goods available for many years, rest, eat and drink and enjoy’. But God said to him, ‘Fool, this very night your life will be demanded of you. And what you have prepared, whose will it be? So it is for those who accumulate treasures for themselves and are not rich in what matters to God.’" This man tries to accumulate material things and does not enrich himself before God. Jesus does not invite us to be without anything, but to enter into the true sense of things. To enrich ourselves before God, to know that our true wealth is in heaven, our true treasure, our eternal destiny, our eternity, our greatness. To enrich oneself before God means to become rich according to things that have value in the sight of God.

 

3. If material things are more important to me than my relationships with others, then my life is small and petty.

There are those moments in our existence when God asks us to account for ourselves. What sort of life do you have? Even those around us can evaluate and measure the quality of our lives at any moment. I had a problem, and I saw that you weren't there, that you weren't available for me in my problem. Life often asks us, "Who are you?" Who are you when confronted by the facts? Life questions us at times in a very serious way. Becoming rich before God entails making yourself rich with something that has stability, that has authenticity, that is not “vapour”, as we saw in the first reading. It is about living for something worthwhile. What does this Sunday’s liturgy invite us to? To focus on what really matters, what truly remains when all else disappears. When life is questioned, what remains of our life, what stands, what is truly valuable. One day, our time will arrive and we will ask ourselves, “But what kind of life did we lead, was it worth it, did it have substance?” And we usually end up wondering if anyone else is happy on account of us. This is the real question we ask ourselves. Is there is anyone who is happy because of something we have done? This is true riches, riches in the sight of God. A man had a great harvest and did not think about loving others through that harvest. Instead, he thought about accumulating it, owning it, having it and then enjoying it. This is a mediocre vision of existence that is absolutely not up to our great dignity as children of God. Returning to the case of the two brothers, the question that this passage asks us about the vanity of life is, “What is more important, to possess the inheritance or to have a brother? The quality of our life is revealed by the answer that we give. If the inheritance is more important, our life is really small. The possession of a brother is more important than any material gain. Earning a brother (as we read in another passage of the Gospel) means regaining communion with a brother. This is more important than all the money in this world.