EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR "C"

Cycle “C”:Eccles 1,2; 2, 21 – 23Col, 3, 1-5; 9-11

Luke 12, 13 – 21

Introduction: Why do we live the way we do? What is the purpose and goal of our lives?

St. Paul’s response is clear: Christians live in a way that corresponds to their new life in Christ. Having been raised up with Christ, they seek to embrace the new self that Jesus has obtained for them through his death and resurrection. Rather than tell people what to do, Paul reminds them of their new life in Christ and calls on them to live accordingly.

 

The Homily:

Catching monkeys. Yes, catching monkeys. Some hunters here in India have an ingenious method of trapping monkeys. They cut a small hole in a wooden box and place a tempting nut inside. The opening is just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand, but too small for him to withdraw his hand once he has clutched the nut inside. So the monkey has two choices: he can let go of the nut and go free or he can hold on and be captured. Many animals choose to hold on - with disastrous consequences.

The impulse to greed and selfishness is strong in all of us. We can behave like monkeys and turn out to be nuts; like the nut that Jesus describes in today’s Gospel. In today’s gospel a man is aggrieved at not receiving his inheritance, and asks Jesus to be the referee. Those days they used to refer legal issues to their rabbis.  Whatever the man’s legal rights, Jesus refuses to act because he sees the man’s overriding desire to use the wealth to make himself secure and arrogant, which in turn could bring on the danger of losing faith in God. Like the rich fool (Lk 16, 19-310), he is self-absorbed and egotistical. Seeing no further than the here and now, he has made himself the centre of his own universe, accountable neither to God nor to his fellow men and women. That is how Jesus read the fellow’s case.

The human heart is the battleground on which the values of time and eternity confront each other everyday. The ongoing tension between time and eternity colours all our choices. The man in today’s Gospel chose the value of time. Castles, empires and kingdoms have been built on such values and have crumbled in the dust of time. It is vanity to glorify the things of earth, because this very night they may be taken from us. Possessions have been compared to seawater  -  the more one drinks the thirstier one becomes, increasing the temptation of pilfering from others. I sometimes repeat this alliterated sentence, if you don’t mind: “The path to perdition is paved with pilfered possessions.” In a real sense the more one possesses the poorer he becomes. A penny leads to a pound, which leads to another pound, and then to a bigger house, high walls, security cameras, guard dogs and electric fences. It is a road much travelled that has led millions to slavery.

If money possesses us, and the TV dictates our life programming and purchases, when “wants” turn into “needs”, you have a problem. Because then fellow beings don’t matter any longer, relationships don’t matter, either. It seems that our world has become very horizontal, i.e. directed totally towards the self, seeing everything in the light of the present moment only. We fail to grasp the truth of our mortality.

            We need the Word of God to pull back the scales for our eyes and direct us towards freedom, to the place where our real wealth is to be found.

 Our Christian faith summons us to see everything in the light of our eternal destiny. Furthermore, we are accountable to God for the way we live our lives. Our lives should express our dependence on God, trusting him to provide for us in all the difficulties and uncertainties we face. I’d like to inform you that the Gospel of St. Luke, read all these Sundays, was addressed to very poor non-Jewish Christians, as against the Gospel of St. Mathew, which was written for affluent Jewish Christians. Here I am speaking to a congregation whose members are not exactly wallowing in wealth, but struggling to live decently and to provide for their children’s future, and yet so generous with the poor of the parish. That is why I want to raise your eyes to Jesus and his sort of wealth.

Jesus offers us a share in his riches. His wealth was rooted in wisdom, compassion and truth. His touch was rich in healing, his speech was rich in truth, his prayer had a wealth of faith, his love was a fund of faithfulness, his promise was rich in giving, his body was bursting with service, his spirit was rich in holiness; and all the while he didn’t even have an address. His life and death rebukes the poverty of those who hoard and hold on, but exalts the wealth of those who discover that time is a pathway to eternity

We need the Word of God to pull back the scales from our eyes and direct us towards freedom. Today this liberating word invites us to slip the bonds that keep our minds fixed on the things below, so that we can raise our hearts to the place where real wealth is to be found.

PRAYER: by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894; 44 years)

Grant to us, O Lord, the royalty of inward happiness, and the serenity that comes from living close to thee. Daily renew in us the sense of joy, and let the eternal Spirit of the Father dwell in our souls and bodies, filling every corner of our hearts with light and grace; so that, bearing about with us the infection of good courage, we may be diffusers of life, and may meet all ills and cross all accidents with gallant and high-hearted happiness, giving thee thanks always for all things. 

            Lord Jesus, I thank you for the beauty and wealth of nature and the immense universe for which I am full of admiration. Give me that rich distinction of calling nothing my own; and give me a heart for the greatest possession of all, which is YOU. Amen.