[Qoheleth questions the assumption that the just person, the good person must be happy. He observes that when a person, even a just person, has all (s)he wants they are not content. God is no accountant keeping a rigid balance sheet and doling out life and death, happiness and misery, in strict proportion to a person’s virtue or guilt. God is in no way answerable to humankind.. ‘Vanity of vanities’ is the keynote. It may seem like cynicism, but he is being realistic]
Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!
For so it is that a man who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This, too, is vanity and great injustice; for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun? What of all his laborious days, his cares of office, his restless nights? This, too, is vanity.
[We are ‘new creatures’ living Christ’s life and so must ‘kill’ everything in us that is not part of that life]
Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed - and he is your life - you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.
That is why you must kill everything in you that belongs only to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god; and never tell each other lies. You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its creator; and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised or the uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free man. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.
[We can hoard and amass riches for selfish purposes but Jesus asks us to be rich in the sight of God. How do we do this? Today’s first reading offers us a clue. We must pay attention to God and to others. We must slow the pace of our lives and enjoy what the creator has given us. Above all we must share with one another]
A man in the crowd said to Jesus, 'Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.' 'My friend,' he replied, 'who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?' Then he said to them, 'Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man's life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.'
Then he told them a parable: 'There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, "What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops." Then he said, "This is what I will do; I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time." But God said to him, "Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?" So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.
A
1. What word or phrase stands out for you? Why?
2. With whom in the readings do you most identify? Why
3. Do you feel attracted to anything in today’s readings? Do you feel
resistant to anything? Do you know why?
4. In what way do these readings affirm you?
5. In what way do these readings challenge you?
6. What can you do to respond to this challenge?
B
1. Tell about a time when material goods failed to satisfy you.
2. What forms of ‘emptiness’ do you continue to pursue, as though they mattered?
3. What really does matter?
4. What do I want…. What do I need?
5. How can you “store up riches in the sight of God” that you can “take with you?”
6. Have you ever received/ bought something you wanted and then found it didn’t make you as happy as you thought it would?
7. Do you think today’s readings might have anything to say to us about “world debt?”
1. Gospel tells us about a fool who forgot God and others caught up in his own greed. The rich man in today’s gospel is called a fool for three inseparable factors.
a. He has forgotten God
b. He has not thought about eternal life
c. He is not bothered about any obligations to the poor. He is centred on himself.
d. Middle reading from St. Paul reminds us that we are children of God, and so should have a different lifestyle.
2. This parable challenges us to think about our values. Today's gospel takes us on a soul searching journey about value clarification and getting a perspective on our priorities. The text speaks about treasures, avoiding greed and possessiveness in all its forms. It is not a gospel giving about the rich - but possessiveness. Rich or poor we can be possessive. It is not talking about need, but greed.
3. We need to ask ourselves: “whose kingdom am I building.” Jesus says; “seek first the kingdom of God.”
The host of a morning news program was interviewing a writer from Forbes magazine who was lamenting the financial losses suffered by various dot-com billionaires. He said that one person’s fortune had fallen to a mere $170 million and another had only a billion left. I could barely hold back my tears. What a change when I approached the Sunday readings. “Vanity of vanities” says dour Qoheleth, who goes on to recount the perils of wealth, while Jesus tells a parable about the danger of greed and the fragility of wealth. Hardly grist for summer vacation prayer and preaching!
Luke begins with an all too familiar fight over an inheritance, which Jesus is asked to adjudicate. Jesus refuses but warns against greed by recounting a parable illustrating that one’s life does not consist of possessions. Greed (Greek: pleonexia, “grasping for more”) is one of the most pilloried vices in antiquity, called by Diodorus Siculus “the metropolis of all evil.” Paul calls it idolatry, since the desire for wealth begins to take over one’s life (Col. 3:5).
The parable begins on a positive note. A rich man’s land produced a bountiful harvest—usually a sign of God’s blessing. The parable then becomes a long soliloquy, in which the man ponders his future. He attempts to secure this future by building bigger barns, storing the grain and other goods, so he can sit back and say, “You have many good things stored up for years; rest, eat, drink and be merry.” Suddenly the voice of God thunders, “Fool” (using language forbidden to humans, Mt. 5:21-22), “this night your life will be demanded of you.” Jesus then utters an ominous warning: “Thus it will be for one who stores up treasure for himself, but is not rich in what matters to God.”
A rather harsh God emerges from this parable. Why did the rich man merit such condemnation? Some have suggested that he wanted to corner the market on grain and drive prices up. More likely he has turned his back on his Jewish heritage where Torah demands that gleanings from a harvest be left for the poor, the widow, the orphan and the immigrant (Lev. 19:9-10; 23:22; Dt. 24:21). Because he has rejected God’s word, God’s voice condemns him.
Today’s readings present a special challenge to prosperous North Americans. (Added: And to most of us reading this reflection). The gap between rich and poor widens; bigger homes, bigger cars, bigger home entertainment centers are the modern equivalent of the bigger barns. How shall Christians today become “rich in what matters to God”? Skip The Prayer of Jabez, and take Luke’s Gospel to the beach.
• Reflect with Qoheleth [reading 1 Ecclesiastes] on the “vanities” that can take over our lives.
• Ask Christ to help you find the true treasures of your heart.
• Read prayerfully Mary’s Magnificat, pausing with prayers of gratitude and petition to Mary.