First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23

Gospel: Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, “this is what I shall do; I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There shall I store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many goods stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

Qoheleth was certainly a cynical man, and his biblical book is filled with cynicism. At the very end, Qoheleth writes: “The last word, when all is heard: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this concerns all humankind; because God will bring to judgment every work, with all its hidden qualities, whether good or bad” (Eccl. 12:13-14). Not bad advice, that. Fear God and keep His commandments.

The man in Jesus’ parable seems to have forgotten that lesson. He stores up for himself riches that, he expects, will last him years. He never gives a thought to thanking God or considering how he might help the poor or others in need. No, he keeps it for himself. Does he need all of that? Apparently not, for God tells him that this very night his life “will be demanded of” him. He’s going to die. Then, God wonders, to whom will all of his stored-up treasure go? In our day, without a will, there would likely be a contentious court battle among surviving relatives. I suppose, if there were no surviving relatives, the state would take possession. Who would not get it, in any circumstances, are the poor, those who could most benefit from a windfall.

Our possessions are for the purpose of getting us through life with enough comfort and convenience to allow us to contribute to society and take care of those for whom we’re responsible. Our possessions are not for the purpose of exalting our status among the neighbors or family. Our possessions are not for the purpose of making our lives easier than they need be to, again, contribute to society and provide for our loved ones. Owning a car in this country in this day is necessary. But the purpose of a car is to get you from point A to point B faster than it would take you walking or riding a horse. Anything more than that is vanity. Our homes are for the purpose of protecting us from the elements, from nefarious characters out there, and for giving a place to eat comfortably, enjoy our family’s company or others who may come to visit, and having a place to sleep, protected from the ravages of the night. Anything more than that is vanity. The clothes on our backs are for the purpose of protecting us from the elements also, and the wider community from … well … us! I think it’s fine that we sometimes wear clothes that express our values: our faith, our support for causes, our home state or university, or a favorite sports team, etc. Clothes that turn us into billboards for products, or do the least bit possible in protecting the wider community from us, or clothes that we wear intending to communicate our wealth or social status, are no more than vanity. I think that companies that produce clothes that are made with materials harvested or produced by slave labor or oppressive governments (I’m talking to you, diamond industry!) participate at some level in the sin of oppression, and we do, too, when we purchase and wear them. I have attempted for the past couple of decades to avoid purchasing products made in China. China is a horrifically oppressive communist government that limits religious freedom, imprisons bishops and pastors, commits genocide against certain groups, forces women to have abortions, sentences to death those who have committed petty crimes, or no crime at all, in order to kill them to harvest their organs and sell them on the black market, and controls their people under the greatest surveillance system ever created. I’ve not been perfect over the last couple of decades, but I’ve given it good thought, and usually I’m able to overcome the temptation of making excuses to purchase something made in China. Even shoes!

The lesson of this story is that we cannot assume that God doesn’t care about our concrete choices. Our household budgets are moral documents. They communicate our values. Just so, our spending and what we own ought to reflect, as much as is possible, the priorities of God or, as Jesus tells it, those things “that matter to God.” What matters to God? I think it is best explained in Matthew 25:31-46: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” These are the things that matter to God. Not what we wear, eat, drink, drive, play, or how much we have in the bank (well, He might care about that, but only in consideration of what we do with it).

Jesus demands a new perspective on what matters. What usually matters to the cultural elites, or to our political players, or to the titans of industry, matters little to Jesus. What matters to Jesus is seeing and addressing the needs of others, especially those in great need, who the Scriptures call the anawim. The anawim are all those who are poor in all the variety of ways it is possible to be poor: the slaves, the physically and mentally and politically vulnerable, those with no bank accounts, and those with no homes. In other words, those with no earthly power.

At the Incarnation, Jesus became one of the anawim. He was the living God of the universe, the one by whom the Scriptures say, “all things were made” (Jn 1:3). Yet He emptied Himself, becoming one of us. As St. Paul says, He took “the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found in human appearance, humbled himself” (Phil 2:7-8a). He surrendered His power so that He might save us, powerless in our sins. Jesus had everything, and He gave it all away. Why? To redeem us, to pay the price of our offences, to free us from the chains of sin, to be our model of holiness, to reveal to us the love of God, and to make it possible for us to share in the very nature of God.

The Church has long encouraged the practice of the Works of Mercy. The Works of Mercy incorporate the priorities of God as expressed in Matthew 25, and more. They are traditionally divided into the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. The Corporal Works of Mercy include efforts to improve the lives of others by providing for their temporal needs: feed the hungry; give drink to the thirsty; clothe the naked; shelter the homeless; visit the sick; visit the imprisoned; bury the dead. The Spiritual Works of Mercy include efforts to improve the lives of others by providing for their spiritual needs: counsel the doubtful; instruct the ignorant; admonish the sinner; comfort the afflicted; forgive offenses; bear wrongs patiently; pray for the living and the dead. We are not to practice the Works of Mercy with the idea of earning our way to heaven. We are to practice them because we love Jesus and we love those He came to save, including us.

I’ve heard it said that the only things we get to take with us to the kingdom are the things we gave away. Jesus gave away everything for our sake. By what measure do we measure our lives as successful? In answering that question, we ought to consider the things that matter to God.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.