18th Sunday
Ordinary Time – Year C
Luke 12:13-21
‘Take care to guard against all greed; one’s life does not consist of possessions.’
(Lk 12:15)
This Sunday’s Readings
First Reading
Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 95:1-2,6-9
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Second Reading
Colossians 3:1-5,9-11
There is neither Greek nor Jew, but Christ is all in all.
Gospel Reading
Luke 12:13-21
A person’s life does not consist of possessions.
Background on the Gospel Reading
In Chapter 12 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus instructs his disciples and the crowd on how to be ready for the coming judgment. A crowd of many thousands has gathered to hear Jesus. At first he speaks only to the disciples, reminding them that it is not persecution they should fear but the judgment that is coming for all who do not acknowledge the Son of Man. Suddenly a man in the crowd shouts out to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” He seems to have grown tired of Jesus speaking only to the disciples. Jesus offers the man no help. Instead he uses the question to teach what, in light of the coming judgment, life really consist of.
Jesus tells the crowd a parable. A rich man’s lands have yielded more crops than expected. His response is not to consider how he might share all the extra food with others but to wonder how he can possibly store it all. He has what he thinks is a brilliant idea: to tear down his present barns and build larger ones. Then he will have many things stored up for years of eating, drinking, and making merry.
“You fool” is God’s response to this man because that very night his life will be taken away. To whom will everything belong then, God asks. The rich man’s world is small, just him and his possessions, and now he learns that he is to lose his life. What good are his possessions now? Jesus states the moral of the story. This is how it will be for everyone who stores up treasure for himself or herself but is not rich in what matters to God.
Centuries later St. Gregory the Great taught that when we care for the needs of the poor, we are giving them what is theirs, not ours. We are not just performing works of mercy; we are paying a debt of justice. Life does not consist in possessions but in sharing what we possess with others. The goods of the earth have been given to everyone.
Wealth is found in God alone
Michael Simone
When I was in college, a fellow student came to class one day wearing a shirt that read, “The one who dies with the most toys wins!” Although the saying was an ironic comment on the excesses of the 1980s, it bespeaks a perennial human problem. In every age, greed—the inordinate desire to accumulate wealth or possessions—is a temptation many struggle to resist.
Warnings against greed appeared in many first-century texts. The non-Christian writer Plutarch warns against the vice that never lets individuals rest, driving them to acquire ever more without satisfaction (Moralia 525 E). Mark’s Gospel and Paul’s letters list greed among deadly vices (Mk 7:22, Rom 1:29; Eph 4:19; 5:3). The noncanonical Gospel of Thomas shares the same parable found in this Sunday’s Gospel reading, pointing out the way death makes a mockery out of human schemes (Thomas 63). Matthew, meanwhile, emphasizes the value of heavenly treasure by contrasting it with the transitory nature of material possessions. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:19).
Luke takes a different approach and warns against confusing wealth with life. “Though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Luke recognizes that wealth has a symbolic value. Material goods represent our time, hard work, talents and dreams. They can provide illusions of present control and future security. An increase in possessions can coincide with advances in education or personal development. These make it easy to regard material possessions as a concrete expression of one’s life or, even worse, as its source and purpose.
Greed is not limited to wealth. It can take the form of the accumulation of anything unnecessary. For example, greed for power is almost as common as greed for wealth, and people can also be greedy for things like social connections or experiences. In each case, the thing desired becomes a counterfeit of life itself.
Jesus urges his followers not to make that mistake. God alone is the source and purpose of life. Food, shelter and clothing support life, and a prudent reserve of resources can ease anxieties about the future. But the basis of life and peace is not the wealth itself but God, who provided it.
Luke locates this teaching in his Gospel narrative during Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, a time during which he often taught the conditions for discipleship. Just as earlier Jesus had taught that home, family and good name should not distract one’s discipleship (9:23-24, 57-62), so now he teaches that the acquisition of material possessions must never take the place of the divine mission to which God calls each disciple. The purpose of life is to become like Christ, and true wealth consists of the everyday decisions that make us resemble him. A disciple’s treasure is every act of forgiveness, generosity and kindness, and every deed that confers healing or deliverance or peace. Those who accumulate these treasures have discovered the true purpose of the life God has given.
https://www.americamagazine.org
To accumulate goods for oneself is madness
Fernando Armellini
Three times in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was asked for indications about inheritance. “What shall I do to receive eternal life?”—they ask, first a doctor of the law (Lk 10:25), then a rich ruler (Lk 18:18). Jesus responds to both, explaining in detail the conditions for having a part in this legacy. In a dialogue with the disciples, he introduces the eternal inheritance discourse: “As for those who have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or property for my Name’s sake they will receive a hundredfold, and be given eternal life” (Mt 19:29).
The third question is the one referred to in today’s Gospel. Two brothers cannot agree on the inheritance. Note the curious fact: the inheritance was to be divided; however, ‘this one’ divides. Money drags the unnoticed into a stealthy trap. It takes him wherever it wants, it programs his life, it separates him from his friends, it divides his family, it makes him forget even God. But, above all, it deceives him because it removes from his mind the thought of death.
In the past, the thought of death would shake an individual like a scarecrow. Today we are witnessing the opposite phenomenon, but equally harmful. Every possible attempt is made to make us forget that we also begin to die from the moment we begin to live. The foolishness, the mental obfuscation caused by money, is evident in the fact that greed makes the thought of death disappear precisely in the presence of death (the division of inheritance takes place after a death). Jesus did not despise the goods of this world, but he warned us against the danger of becoming its slaves.
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
Despite some bickering, in general, brothers love each other. Until when? Until the day they are called to share the inheritance. On money and property matters, even the best of people, Christians too, often end up losing their heads and become blind and deaf: they see only their interest and are willing to override even the most sacred sentiments. At times, with the help of a wise friend, the parties can agree; at other times, the hatred lasts for years, and the brothers stop talking to each other.
One day Jesus was chosen as a mediator to solve one of these family conflicts (v. 13). In such cases, rabbis do not deny a suggestion, an excellent tip to anyone. Here was the surprising answer of the Master: “Who has appointed me as your judge or your attorney?” (v. 14). Probably we disagree with him. Why does he hold back? Does he want to teach not to give value to the realities of this world? Does he invite us to shy away from the real problems of life? Does he recommend tolerating the oppression of the arrogant? It cannot be. That would be contrary to the rest of the Gospel. Let us understand it better.
The situation presented to him has arisen because one has attempted to commit injustice, and the other is in danger of suffering from it. What can be done? Various solutions are possible: invent an excuse to escape the complicated issue or rely upon the provisions in force at the time, such as Deuteronomy 21:15-17 and 27:1 and Numbers 27:1-11. These need only be applied to the specific case after having filtered them, if necessary, through some common sense. This would probably be the solution that we would have adopted. It seems the most logical and wise but has a serious drawback: it does not eliminate the cause from which all the discord, hatred, and injustice are derived.
Instead of solving the individual case, Jesus chooses to go to the root of the problem. “Be on your guard—he tells everyone—and avoid every kind of greed, for even though you have many possessions, it is not that which gives you life” (v. 15). Here the cause of all evil is singled out: the greed of money, the desire to grab things. The disagreements arise when one forgets the fundamental truth: this world’s goods do not belong to us but to God, who allocates them to all. Whoever hoards for oneself and grabs more than one should without thinking of others distorts the Creator’s plan. The goods are no longer considered gifts of God, but man’s property; from precious objects, they are transformed into idols to worship.
Here one notices not the contempt of Jesus for material goods, but his detachment from this world and the superiority of his projects and proposals. The inheritance he is interested in is something else. He has in mind the Kingdom that will be “inherited” by the poor (Mt 5:5). He has in mind—as Peter will say to the newly baptized—the inheritance that does not corrupt nor goes bad or passes away (1 Pt 1:4).
To clarify his thought, he tells a parable (vv. 16-20), the central part of which consists of the long argument that the rich farmer makes with himself. This man, I think, proves himself likable. He works hard, is wise, obtains optimum results, and is fortunate and blessed by God. Jesus does not say that he has enriched himself by committing injustice and theft. There is the assumption that he is also honest. Having achieved well-being, he decides to retire for a well-deserved rest; he does not plan revelry and debauchery, just a quiet, comfortable, and blessed life. In this story, if someone behaves incomprehensibly, God seems to be the one. Where did the farmer go wrong? Why is he called foolish?
The characters in the parable are only three: God, the rich man, and the goods. Has this man—we wonder—no family, wife, and children? No neighbors? No workers? Of course, he has them. He lives among people, but he does not see them. He has no time, no energies to spend, no thoughts, no words, and feelings for the people. He is only interested in his property and its increase. He thinks of the crops, the stores, and the wheat. In his mind, there is no room for anything else, certainly not God. His assets are the idol that has created a vacuum around him and has dehumanized all. Even the farmer, in his heart, is no longer a man; he is a thing: he is a machine that produces and makes calculations, is a register of accounts.
We feel compassion for him because he is a poor, unfortunate, and mad man, as Jesus said. Something in him is broken because he has no inner balance and has completely lost life’s orientation and meaning. Consider his monologue: he uses fifty words, fourteen of them referring to ‘I’ and ‘mine.’ Everything is his; only he and his property exist. He is foolish. But suddenly, the third character appears—God who, that very night, asks him an account of his life. Do not ask why the Lord acts in this way, why is he so ‘nasty’ and ‘vindictive.’ It is a story. God—mind you!—does not do these things. Jesus introduces him in the parable to show his audience the true values on which it is worthwhile to base our life and those brief and deceptive ones.
The judgment of God is heavy: whoever lives to accumulate assets is a fool! Is wealth thus bad? Absolutely not. Jesus has never condemned it; he never asked anyone to throw it away, but he warned people against the grave dangers that it hides. The ideal of a Christian is not a miserable life. At the end of the parable, the mistake made by the rich farmer is indicated. He is not condemned because he produced many goods, worked hard, and was committed, but because “he has amassed for himself” and “has not enriched himself in the sight of God” (v. 21).
Here are the two woes produced by being blinded by possessions. The first: to enrich oneself alone, accumulating wealth for oneself without thinking of others. Wealth must be increased, but for everyone, not just for some. Incompatible with the Gospel is ‘greed,’ the ‘insatiable craving for possession,’ the foolish feelings and thoughts of the one who, like the farmer of the parable, obsessively repeats that wretched possessive pronoun ‘myne.’ When the energies of all people will be engaged to increase not the ‘mine’ and the ‘yours,’ but ours, then the causes of war, discord, and problems of inheritance will be eliminated.
The second woe: excluding God from his own life and replacing him with an idol. This choice leads to ‘madness,’ and the most apparent symptom is removing the thought of death. Whoever idolizes money becomes paranoid; he does not live in a real world but in what he built for himself, which he imagines eternal. He forgets ‘the measure of his life and how short life is’; he does not consider that “each living person is only a breath, passes like a shadow. He is just a mere whiff of breath; he rakes in wealth, not knowing who will take it next” (Ps 39:5-7). Is one who owns no fields and has no bank account not affected by this parable? Jesus does not warn the one who has great wealth but whoever accumulates it for oneself. One can have a little money and have the “heart of the rich.”
Everyone should be aware that the treasures of this world are treacherous; they do not accompany us to the other life.
