Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 31, 2016 - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Eccl 1:2, 2:21-23; Col 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21]SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2016. EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21] "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions." [Luke] One of the major issues in our seemingly never-ending political drama is income inequality. In Jesus' day, income inequality was taken for granted. There was only so much wealth available and some had more of it than others. However, those who had more of it were expected to be generous to those who had less. The Gospel of Luke gives considerable attention to the dangers of wealth. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) is one example. Today's parable of the Rich Fool is another. (And it is reinforced by the rather pessimistic outlook of Ecclesiastes in the first scripture.) In both parables, the rich person fails to share the wealth. In the first, Lazarus sits on the doorstep and is either ignored or the rich man simply fails to notice because of his cares about his lifestyle. In today's parable, the rich person is trying to guarantee financial security. Instead of sharing the abundance of his harvest, he builds bigger barns to hoard it. He dies unexpectedly. "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you: and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?" Jesus concludes the parable: "Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God." The failure to share his abundance dooms the Rich Fool. The idea of generosity here is not just to make more money so one can give more away. It is the greed for power and possessions that comes to dominate one's life. Generosity that is based on predatory economic practices gains little for the one who lives that way. And if the gains are insured by establishing an economic system that favors this kind of behavior, a great "chasm" of the kind in the first parable is created. We pride ourselves in a myth that "anyone" can become rich in the U.S.A.. Jesus warns us of the dangers in that myth and even greater dangers when it comes true in celebrated instances. AMEN
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