Reading 1 Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill,
and yet to another who has not labored over it,
he must leave property.
This also is vanity and a great misfortune.
For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart
with which he has labored under the sun?
All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation;
even at night his mind is not at rest.
This also is vanity.
Reading 2 Col 3:1-5, 9-11
Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.
Gospel Lk 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 I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things 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.”
Today we have profoundly rich and beautiful readings. There is so much to ponder on.
The first reading reminds us of the vanity and emptiness of most of what we pursue in life. It is an invitation to us to place proper values on what attracts us and set our priorities right. The second reading exhorts us to focus on what is not vanity, matters of our eternity.
In the Gospel, Jesus was preaching an important topic, he was exhorting his listeners to witness to him without fear. A man was there who all along he was thinking about his share of the inheritance. He rudely interrupted the heavenly discourse with his request proceeding from his carnal interest.
This gave Jesus the opportunity to teach him, the crowd, you and I, eternal lessons.
Three powerful lessons:
- Watch and be on your guard (Ὁρᾶτε καὶ φυλάσσεσθε) 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.
We may wish to reflect today on avarice.
- Jesus narrated a parable of a man rich but foolish. We may also choose to reflect on spiritual foolishness.
- Jesus ended by saying “so it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.
If storing up riches on earth is vanity, I think we should be very interested in how to be rich in the sight of God.
This parable implies that someone can be wealthy on earth but very poor in the sight of God and someone can be poor in material terms but rich in the sight of God.
Today let’s reflect on: εἰς Θεὸν πλουτῶν – “Being rich in the sight of God.”
How can one be rich in the sight of God?
I shall mention five ways and preach on three;
- Faith is great wealth in the sight of God.
Abraham was already wealthy in the sight of God before he acquired material wealth.
To have, know and trust God is the greatest wealth. Psalm 23 says the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Psalm 16:5 says the Lord is my portion… In Gen 17:1 He is called El-Shaddai – the Lord God Almighty, all-sufficient.
To have God, to know the God you have and to trust Him is the greatest wealth. The greatest poverty in the world is not to have faith in God. Faith in God is the greatest heavenly currency. The more your faith the richer you are, you can purchase anything from the market of heaven. Some people are so poor that the only currency they have is naira.
- To render deliberate, selfless and committed service to God.
Hebrews 6:10 – For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints…”
For every service we render to the Lord in any form, for every participation in the mission of the Church and every commitment to bringing joy and God’s love to others out of our love for God, we are entitled to divine remuneration, which is kept intact for us in our account in heaven.
- Our generosity and kindness to the poor and the needy.
Proverbs 19:17, Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done.
Berean study bible says:
Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord and he will repay the lender.
The rich man in today’s gospel says I will build a bigger barn. Why building bigger barns when there are better barns? The stomachs of the hungry are better barns.
- Poverty of spirit is wealth in the sight of God.
We cannot be rich in the sight of God if our heart is too occupied with the attraction of what the first reading calls vanity.
The poverty of Spirit is not to place our joy and happiness on the things of the world, not to be more concerned about them than necessary, not to place too much value on what is temporal, poverty of Spirit is to be more interested in the things above (second reading).
On Wednesday, we read from Matthew 13:44-46, a man who discovered a treasure hidden in a field, he went to sell everything else he owned and buys the field, he gave up what is less important for what is most important. He became richer by pursuing true riches.
Matthew 5:3 says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Making friends with souls in purgatory;
Anyone who makes friends with souls in purgatory, praying, receiving communion and making an offering for them is storing treasures for himself in heaven because when these souls eventually gain their release, they will never forget the person and they will repay with much greater kindness.
I wish to recommend a wise spiritual practise for us today. Apart from praying for our deceased relatives and friends, we could adopt a soul in purgatory especially someone who has been abandoned, we ask our Blessed Mother to give us a soul to adopt, we pray diligently for his/her relief and release.
If the soul eventually gains release our prayers are transferred to someone else in need of our prayers, we are making ourselves rich in God’s sight and preparing for our own eternity.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami on August 4, 2019