Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C  August 1, 2010

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23  Psalm: 90   Col 3:1-5, 9-11 Luke 12:13-21

1. Our Gospel today ties together the thoughts of the readings and responsorial psalm. The first reading deals with foolishness: we place our hearts of transitory things.

Our second reading calls for wisdom: “seek then the things that are from above.”

The Psalm asks for a “heart full of wisdom”

The Book of Ecclesiastes is considered by scholars not as Good News but Bad Tidings in a sort of way. It is not intended to comfort the afflicted but rather to afflict the comfortable. It lays bare and for everyone to gaze at – the foibles, the follies and the miserliness of the human heart. We are often so self-centred that we think of no one else but ourselves. The reading starts with “Vanity of vanities” – in our modern language we could say, “Hot Air, Hot Air, all is Hot Air”. It speaks of human foolishness   as we hunger and thirst for earthly treasures and things that are transitory.  We spend endless time and energy on things that we can loose in an instant. We have only to call to mind the suddenness of Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami and more recently the BP oil spill in the gulf of Mexico which in a flash has taken the livelihood of the Louisiana Shrimp farmers.

 If we look at our hearts, most of our sadness and disillusionment comes from not being satisfied and enjoying what we have. We constantly eye what our neighbours have and want that and then some. Like the man in the gospel, we are constantly selling houses, cars, computers to buy something bigger, brighter, faster and more expensive.

2. The Picture that Paul paints in the second reading is in total contrast to the reading from Ecclesiastes. Paul tells us to seek the things from above. He tells us to eschew things that are fleeting, flashy and that bore us even as we acquire them. As we “seek the things from above”, Paul tells we already share in those eternal gifts by virtue of our baptism. Our lives are now part of Christ in God. This alone should satisfy the desires of the human heart.

 Paul goes on to spell in detail the transitory things: they are the pleasures of the flesh, the greed for earthly treasures. Jesus would tell us : these things can be destroyed by moth and rust, these things can be stolen by thieves.

 It is said we become what we eat. We could also the same of what we desire. We become what we are attached to. We no longer possesses these things, they possess us. So if we are driven to possess earthly things, passing things, things that glitter, we become shallow, we lead lives without meaning. Paul encourages us to put on a new self, the person, we want to be when we leave this earth.

3.  God constantly sends us men and women, both Christian and others who show us that peace of mind and heart comes from constantly seeking things from above. Many of these men and women who inspire us would not even be able to articulate these ideas of Paul.

 This week we said goodbye to our security guard Mikhail, a Canadian who was born and brought up in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). Although not a Catholic or claiming any religious affiliation, he showed me by example to seek the things that are above.

• He took joy in doing his job without flair or fanfare.
• He did not raise his voice or push authority. But being firm in his joy, he showed endless patience with the elderly and the slow in intelligence.
• He sought no reward apart for the pay he got from his job. So he was constantly amazed, grateful and surprised at the gratitude and gifts from the parishioners.

4. This is such a contrast from the man in the Gospel who could have and should have lived comfortably with what he had. But rather, he was foolish enough to put all his faith in things that were flashing fleeting and fanciful – namely, the treasures of his world. Bigger houses, bigger barns, bigger security.

 He did not seek things from above and so his life was built on valueless things, and they would be snatched away from him just like the things he thought he possessed.  As his life was taken from him, so were his possessions.  We have never seen a U-haul truck being a funeral hearse, have you?

5. What could be said of the nameless man of the Gospel. Apart from his riches

• He saw nothing
• He heard nothing
• He said nothing
• He did nothing. 
• He ended up being nothing.

We can write our own obituary. In order to do that, we need to make a spiritual inventory. If I were to die today, what would I like people to say about me? So many of us have made our funeral arrangements:

• The priest who will say the Mass.
• Arrangements to be buried or cremated
• Chosen the songs to be sung at Mass
• What are the readings and who will read them
• Who will be the pall bearers.

Frankly these really do not matter. Would it make a difference to eternal life, if they wrapped you in a cloth and left you by the roadside? What you will be in the next world will be the number of lives you have touched, the number of hearts you have enriched with joy and peace and gratitude. In a word: how was your heart seeking things from above.