25th Sunday in OT (C) - Riches to Heaven

25^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 

Luke 16:10-13

September 22, 2013

GOSPEL READING: Application of the Parable of the Parable of the Dishonest Steward

The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

REFLECTION: Riches to Heaven

It is a nice story to hear whenever a taxi driver or janitor would return a large sum of money left by a customer. That money could help them change the status of their life, but they chose to be an honest man. Some stories would irritate our ears. We hear scandals over public funds used by corrupt individuals. Nowadays, money can easily turn into an object of temptation. Will we uphold good virtues or shall we give in to greed? Our Lord reminds us of this fact. He said, “Man cannot serve both mammon and God.” The riches of this earth are entrusted to man from the very beginning. God entrusted to Adam the stewardship of this earth, and gave Adam the privilege of naming the plants and animals. The worldly treasures should be seen as means to build treasures in heaven.

Our Lord calls us to gain spiritual wealth through the earthly goods. In the recent calamities, people are encouraged to help those who are affected by the typhoons. Some cook meals, others gather clean clothes, and some would volunteer to help in the distribution of these relief goods. Imagine how many people could be helped if a person shares. If companies would truly embrace corporate responsibility, how many uplifting projects can be organized for the needy? The spirit of true charity overpowers the wickedness of money. Money becomes an instrument to show our care for others, which is the essence of Christian brotherhood – to love one another. Our Lord tells us to detach ourselves from the material wealth, because it enslaves us in greed and hardens our hearts.

As ordinary people, lay Christians were privileged to manage our financial resources. God entrusted to us riches, and gave us freedom to utilize our resources. Our freedom enables us to make decision about the material things we possess. That freedom should also move us to become more responsible in our actions. We should realize that our actions have consequences. When treasures and money are involved two virtues always pop in my mind: temperance and charity. The virtue of temperance is not just about controlling our emotions, but having mastery over our whims and pleasures. Large amount of money might lure us to buy things we don’t need, and to buy luxurious items.

Similarly, in the Parable of the Unfaithful Steward, he wasted the master’s goods. Pope Francis said that whenever wasting food is like stealing from the table of the poor.[1] We might fall in the trap of consumerism, but through the virtue of temperance we would control our expenditures and acquire only what is necessary. We would gain mastery of ourselves and we will learn how to weigh the value of material things. Our moderation will have deeper meaning whenever we mortify our urge of buying and offer it to something greater.

They say Christians have charitable hearts which make them distinct in the early years of Christianity. I believe that Our Lord truly inspired them to be generous to one another. One of my friends said that it is not evil to aspire greater wealth. She said, “Be hopeful and keep on dreaming, don’t you see how much good you could do if you have great wealth.” It gave me another perspective of money and material wealth. Yes, some people go astray when they have huge wealth and become greedy, too. But as long as our heart follows God’s voice, material wealth will become a passport to heaven. We are always reminded by Our Lord to serve God and not the mammon, and we should always adhere to that. If we had all the resources in the world, won’t we ask God, the Creator of universe to guide us? God knows everything, and God has the perfect knowledge of creating good in this world. He will certainly love to hear your voice. We must seek His advice with our decisions. God will not only guide us, but He will help us to become detached from the worldly goods. He will stretch out our arms to become charitable. Hence, we would never be a slave of money, but a servant of God who is willing to share his material possessions for the good of the many.

ABOUT THE SHARER:

MS. ANNA GEFRELIZ PEÑARANDA‏ is a graduate of Bachelor of Library and Information Science at the University of Santo Tomas. She is currently the librarian of the Philippine Dominican Center of Institutional Studies.

KEYWORDS:

Ordinary Time, Cycle C, OP Institutions, Corruption, Greed, Charity, Love, Wealth, Money, Temperance, Generosity

---

[1] Pope Francis’ message last June 5, 2013 in a general papal audience at the St. Peter’s Square.

18th Sunday in OT (C) - “What is the matter with matter?”

18^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Luke 12: 13-21

August 4, 2013

GOSPEL READING: Parable of the Rich Fool

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.’

REFLECTION: “What is the matter with matter?”

This gospel episode has been often and aptly entitled, “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” The focus of the story is not on the adjective “rich,” but on the noun-substantive “fool.” It is not per se a condemnation of material goods, nor of wealthy people as an economic class. Matter and millionaires are also creatures of God. It is really about greed (pleonexia), about excessive, obsessive desire and drive for material possessions, and its inherent insatiability.

In the story, greed has turned the rich person into a soliloquist, someone talking with himself. In the context of Palestinian culture, this self-discourse is highly anomalous, for persons are always persons-with, defined in-relation-to-others, belonging to family, to clan, to tribe, to peoples, to nations.  So, the rich person’s interior monologue betrays sinful selfishness, “I… my… myself.” All his wealth has made him closed upon himself. Rest, eat, drink, be merry!  “It’s more fun when you are only one.” There is no sense of other; there is no sense of God.

But “our lives will be demanded (apaiteo) of us…”  We are to account before God, for every missed opportunity to share, to help, to give what is due to others, to use our wealth and treasure to lift the lot of our fellows and to mirror God’s mercy.

This story offers a tragic lesson that is most relevant in our present times. We have invented a science of productivity and efficiency, with the objective of maximizing yield and profit. Yet, most of our people are still hungry, unemployed, impoverished, disempowered, victimized by unjust social structures. We have hoarded grain and goods, continued to abuse the pork-barrel of largesse and excess, stockpiled on waste and weapons, painted rosy economic pictures of sugary surveys and surface statistics. Yet, there is a persistent, pervading, punishing poverty all around – one that resists doled out palliatives, defies capitalist forecasts, excludes the majority of the poor from the minority of prosperity, renders growth as artificial good news. We have become foolish for treasures for ourselves, but not in what matters to God and to our fellow human beings.

But the parable is open-ended. It does not say whether the rich person died or repented of his ways and began to store up treasures in heaven. So, it invites us to provide the answer, the conclusion to the story, to complete the parable by what we do with our riches, by what we do with our lives.

Let us heed this invitation, this imperative of the Gospel, to be on guard against all greed, against selfishness, against foolishness. What matters is not matter, but its righteous use.

ABOUT THE SHARER:

FR. CLARENCE C. MARQUEZ, OP is a priest of the Order of Preachers. He is the Director of the Institute of Preaching.

KEYWORDS:

Ordinary Time, Cycle C, OP Friars, Greed, Wealth, Parable, Selfishness, Foolishness