18th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle C
ECC 1:2; 2:21-23, PS 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 AND 17, COL 3:1-5, 9-11, GOSPEL: LK 12:13-21
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts!
I love this refrain to the psalm today - because it invites us to two different spiritual activities -
Listen to the voice of the Lord in the events of our lives, and
Accept the Lord as He reveals his love to us through the events of our lives. Welcome Him with an open heart.
Learn from Me for I am meek and gentle of heart (Matt 11)
As we go through the readings today I invite you to open your ears to hear the voice of the Lord, and to soften your heart so that you might receive His word into your life, so that your life will be transformed.
The wrong way of talking to Christ
In the Gospel today we encounter a man who has heard the voice of the Lord, and he knows exactly what He needs Christ to do - to settle a dispute that he has with his brother. Jesus identifies the heart of this complaint as Greed - that is the desire to divide, to separate. This is a tactic of the Devil, whereas Christ comes to unite, to share.
Greed enters in when we focus on stuff instead of people. It is more important to him that he gets his stuff from his brother than he loves his brother. That is why Jesus admonishes him - “Life does not consist of possessions”
The foolishness of the Rich Man
Jesus then goes on to tell the parable about the rich man who was very successful. This man is blessed with an abundant harvest and immediately begins to think about how he can use this harvest to benefit himself. He does not think beyond his own experience. His focus on what he will do with his stuff.
The rich man has a singular focus - himself, and caring for himself. God calls him a fool because the man does not realize that his life is at an end, and so caring for himself is no longer necessary.
Death focuses us on what is important
The sudden death of this rich man helps us focus on 2 key aspects of our lives.
Our life on earth is a preparation for eternal life (hopefully with God in heaven).
There is an urgency to death that helps us to evaluate if what we are doing today is meaningful. (The psalm expresses this when it says - “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain wisdom of heart”...
Selfishness blinds us to God’s plan
The rich man did not understand God’s plan for his life. His focus was solely on himself and what he was going to do. He did not consider why he was receiving this blessing. God blessed him so that he could grow in his ability to love others - but he did not recognize this gift.
Reflection Questions
We can benefit from reflecting on this parable by considering - why is God permitting these events (good or bad) in my life? How am I to respond to them?
Put away the old Man...
The second reading from St. Paul to the Colossians today causes us to consider the events and actions of our lives for this past week so we can live a more fully Christian life. St Paul encourages us to see that in Baptism we have been raised with Christ, and therefore we should seek what is above, not what is on earth.
Consider last week
- What were the actions (things that I did) and events (things that happened to me) that happened?
- What did I do? Was it life-stealing or life giving?
- What were the events that I encountered this week? Why did God allow me to enter into them? Can I see His plan for me?
Life Stealing Actions
Another way to think about life-stealing actions is to think of them as waste, or dead-weight? If I die tonight (like the rich man in the Gospel) will those actions have mattered? Death reminds us of the shortness of our lives here on earth. Death urges us to change our lives - to hate death and its fruits and to seek to rid ourselves of its stench in our lives.
What did I do this week that was grounded in Immorality (Lies / Dishonoring those in authority over us), Impurity (Lust, Covetousness), Passion (Anger) or Evil desire (Stealing, Murder) ?
What did I do this week that was grounded in evil greed or idolatry?
The next question to ask ourselves is why am I drawn to these lifeless pursuits?
St. Paul challenges us to examine why we are drawn to these lifeless pursuits - he says “stop lying to one another - because of your baptism you have taken off the old-self with its practices and have put on a new self”
Why do I fall back into the old self?
So we are called to consider why we are drawn to works of death
- Is it Lack of Faith
- I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe he exists,
- I don’t believe that my actions have consequences
- Because of these beliefs I place myself and my happiness at the core of my life and I focus my energies on that reality.
- I don’t believe that God has a greater plan for me.
- I don’t believe that God hears my prayers, and so I believe that God doesn’t love me. I am jealous of His gifts to others.
- I want to distract myself and fill my life with meaningless noise. I have some hole in my life that I am trying to fill with this distraction - food, entertainment, etc.
- I am angry with God for some suffering I have endured. I believe that He doesn’t love me! I am trapped in hopelessness.
St. Paul gives us medicine when we find ourselves trapped in these deceptions of the Devil. He says that we are to put on Christ.
Life Giving Actions
- When were the times / events where you put on Christ and sought after the things that are from above?
- Did you share the Gospel (in word or in action) with those in need?
- Did you offer good counsel a friend in need?
- Did you take time to visit with someone in their suffering / poverty?
- Did you take time to pray for someone / some situation?
- Did you take time to visit someone who was lonely?
- Did you treat someone with love and respect even though their actions did not warrant it?
These are the actions that truly matter, that draw us closer to the heart of Christ, that mean something at the end of the day.
The events of this week are an encounter with God’s Love
St Paul calls us to put to death the old-self with its practices. He calls us to lead intentional, purposeful lives that reflect our knowledge that God has a plan for us, a mission and a purpose for all that we encounter.
We enter into this with the knowledge that the events that we encounter are an encounter with God’s plan for us. We are called to act so as to reflect His love to others.
We have begun well - with Baptism and Eucharist
St. Paul calls us to seek out the things that are above. To place ourselves in the presence of Christ. We do this as we enter the Church because here we When we entered Mass today we reminded ourselves of this reading. Most of us paused next to the Holy Water font and blessed ourselves with Holy Water. In this way we are “Putting on Christ”. When we bless ourselves we are reminded of our Baptism into His death and resurrection.
I want to invite you as you leave today and bless yourself to ask God for the grace to allow this Holy Water to wash away the useless, wasteful actions of our lives so that we can more fully live out the Gospel.
As we live out our lives this week we should evaluate our actions -
- How open is my heart to receive and share the love of God?
- How do my thoughts and words reflect the resurrection of Christ?
If today you hear His voice - harden not your hearts!
