“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.” Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 2: 21-23
But God said to the rich man: “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then? Luke 12: 13-21
The gospel-reading of the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time gave us the story of Jesus sending the seventy-two disciples to assist him in his mission. He urged them to travel light, to cure the sick and to accept graciously the hospitality of those who offered them food and shelter. In today’s gospel-reading, we hear Jesus warning two brothers fighting over the division of their inheritance to be wary of what exactly it was that was driving their dispute. He was making the point that a drive to acquire more and more only succeeds in cluttering up one’s life. A life built on piling up treasure ends up becoming purposeless, simply because in ends up as an obsession for possessions that robs life of meaning. It’s even more tragic when the urge to acquire more and more results in creating people like the man in the parable Jesus tells. The man who demolished his barns to build bigger ones in which to store his excess speaks only to himself about his own self-comfort. He makes no mention of intending to share his acquisitions with the needy or with anybody else. His poverty consists in the fact that he seems to relate to nobody but himself. Isn’t it true that our lives would be empty and meaningless if we were devoid of friends, family and colleagues?
This gospel parable is a challenge to the would-be rich man or woman in all of us. The gambling agencies recognise the desire for more that is alive in nearly all of us. Those of us who live comfortable lives can sometimes, even often, hear ourselves saying things like: “If only I won Lotto or the Pools or the National Lottery, I would build a dream home or go on a round-the-world cruise or retire to a life of luxury.” Who ever says: “I would direct my winnings to meet the needs of refugees, the starving or the homeless”?
The New Testament from which our gospel-readings come has been translated into English from Greek. The Greek word used to describe the rich land-owner’s desire to accumulate possessions is generally expressed as “avarice” or “greed”. The original Greek word is pleonexia, a combination of two roots – pleon (more) and exia or echo meaning “I possess”. Pleon gave French the word plein, meaning “full” and English the word “pleonasm” – a technical word used by linguists for redundancy (saying the same thing twice). What’s more, there is now available on one’s computer a video game entitled “The Pleonexia Game” – a frightening game about how to get more in the world of investment.
Many of us live in countries where advertising agencies well know how to manipulate people in the wider community who are not content with a lifestyle they can afford. Such agencies target all who have an appetite for more. They cleverly convince consumers that their wants are really needs, and focus their advertising campaigns on turning ordinary consumers into shopaholics.
In 2012, the American writer Ben Fountain published a biting satire entitled Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk. It gives an account of how a unit of soldiers, who had distinguished themselves in the Iraq conflict, were flown back home and used to benefit the owners of a prominent football team. The book was used to create a movie of the same name. In both the book and the movie, the central character, Billy Lynn remarks how the America he saw on his return from Iraq had been turned into “a giant mall with a country attached”. Billy Lynn’s Half-Time Long Walk is a tome of more than 300 pages. While it is no longer readily available, other than in a kindle version, it offers insights into how ordinary people can be seduced into pursuing more than they need.
In today’s Second Reading from Colossians, Paul reminds us that we, made in the image of God, are blessed with the gift of creativity. However, it is creativity for use in imagination, music, art and practical skills, and also in fashioning our spirituality and our inner lives, searching for God, .and seeking to live lives in the service and love of those around us. The rich man in the parable is clearly creative, but his creativity is directed only towards his own comfort. In contrast, God’s creativity was directed towards loving us into life so that we might direct our lives to the service and love of others. The rich man’s creativity had its focus only on himself. As a poor image of God, he simply was nowhere rich enough.
Our three readings put to us on this Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, beginning with an extract from Ecclesiastes (traditionally ascribed to Qoheleth, a pseudonym for King Solomon) which equates living with a focus on problems, worries and self-interest as vanity, to Paul in Colossians who reminds us of our God-given creativity designed for service of others, to the gospel-reading from Luke which challenges us to reflect on the values we need to live life true to the God in whose image we have been created – call us to move from a position of observer to one of participant in what has been presented to us for reflection. We are challenged to look at the way we live and to decide if we are prepared to ensure that the blessings that have come our way are to be directed to the service of others. We have all met people who have acquired exceptional material wealth. We have also met people who have suffered from destitution, neglect and poverty. These people are often included in our prayer. Do we ever think of praying for those who are rich? Perhaps today we might spare a prayer for them:
For people held captive by their assets and wealth, let us pray to the Lord. R: Lord have mercy.
For those whose success in business leaves them less than satisfied, let us pray to the Lord. R: …
For the elite on the social scale, isolated by their status, let us pray to the Lord. R:
For ourselves, that we might resist pursuing more and more, let us pray to the Lord. R: