Rise Above Materialism

SUNDAY GOSPEL REFLECTION

August 4, 2013

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.”

REFLECTION

"Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!"

These are the strong words that we find in our first reading today.  For the Hebrews, vanity or “Hebel” is use to refer for something that does not last forever, something that is futile, worthless and empty.

It is very interesting to understand carefully the meaning of these particular lines because it brings us the question that if all things are vanities, what is then that last forever? It actually gives us an idea about things that are temporal but yet there is also something that is permanent.

I would like to bring this particular reality on our everyday experience. Many of us sought our happiness on material things. We work so hard to earn and to buy our own happiness.  We strive to  gain money, power, prestige, fame and properties. We are so much engrossed of accumulating things for ourselves and we call it “necessity” rather than greed. But all of these are nothing because all of us dies and leave them to someone else to enjoy who did nothing to produce them.

In today’s Gospel, one of the listeners of Jesus obviously respected him and asks Jesus to solve his problem concerning their inheritance. Knowing that Jesus preaches equality and sharing, he then ask Jesus to intervene on his problem. During that time, it was common for people in Palestine to take their unsettled disputes to respected Rabbis; but Jesus refused to be mixed up in anyone's disputes about money.  Jesus instead saw an opportunity to tell his followers what the attitude should be towards material thing. He never claims any against the rich but he is concern on the attachment of one’s possession. Jesus is addressing the young man’s brother perhaps who is being selfish in not sharing his inheritance. He is reminding us and saying that we need to put our trust in God and not in fleeting material things, just as we heard in the other gospel and in the first reading.

We all agree that material possessions are necessary for life. But most of the time, possessions can assume such an importance in one’s life that they become obsessions. When we are so consumed with the things that we buy, we no longer hears the urgent call of God.  Honestly many of us Christian are short sighted that we can only see what is here and now. Many of us are blinded by our greed on material thing and have taken for granted the call of following of Christ.

My brothers and sisters, there is more to life than the accumulation of possessions. Whatever we accumulated in this life, we can never bring it with us in the life after. God has indeed blessed us enormously, but we need to 'rise above materialism,' we need to share our blessings; we need to find ways to build up our accounts in heaven.  MANGYARI NAWA…

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