Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 31, 2022 - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Eccl 1:2, 2:21-23; Col 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21]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 a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? [Ecclesiastes] "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions." [Luke]
The author of the Book of Ecclesiastes (a/k/a Qoheleth) comes across as the ultimate pessimist! Later on in this book we have that wonderful passage: "A time to be born, a time to die, etc." [Ecc. 3:1-8], and the expression, "There is nothing new under the sun!" [Ecc. 1:9] but even these are part of what seems to us as a gloomy outlook! Nevertheless, the gospel passage for today from the Gospel According to Luke seems to echo a bit of Qoheleth. The rich man discovers that his "legacy" is to be a barn full of crops that he failed to share. He will be remembered as a miser.
When the Catholic student center at the University of Arizona, where I was director 1977-80, celebrated a big anniversary some years after I left there, I was asked to supply a reflection on my years there. I thought about it and realized that my "legacy" was not in any big programs or projects that my name could be put on. It was in the relationships that I carried with me in my heart and which are still there, as I discovered when I celebrated my 50th anniversary of ordination last year at an event at the center in Tucson. The attendees were mostly couples whose weddings I celebrated 40+ years ago!!!
St. John of the Cross once wrote that in the end what we will be judged on is love. The rich man's love was really greed. If he had shared his surplus, he would have had the love and esteem of God and neighbor. His generosity would have been his legacy, not his bigger barns. I often offer a question in the Sacrament of Reconciliation: "Are you living the way you want to be remembered?" How do we want to be remembered? AMEN