Sunday 3 August 2025
(Year C: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS*
Recently, we stepped into a small 'clochán' on Inis Mór in the Aran Islands for a little while. This was a womb-like space in which a monk dwelt and prayed for some of the day. He or she remained still in the now and in the here. No sound, no voice and not much light. The short experience left me wondering....
There in the dark and damp of an Irish clochán I could image an Irish monk some 1,200 years ago meditating on the words of today's Psalm 90:9-10:
For all our days pass away under your wrath;
our years come to an end like a sigh.
10 The days of our life are seventy years,
or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
And today, the same questions and struggles confront us day after day. We chase after pleasure, wealth, fame, learning and money but we find no lasting peace or joy within ourselves. We have lost the meaning of needs and wants.
Needs and wants: what is the difference between them? I need a new smartphone or do I just want one? We live in a highly stressful and competitive age where we are told we must have or we must look a certain way or dress in a particular fashion or think in a certain way. But, what do we need? And where does money come into it?
What we need – in addition to shelter, clothing and food – is kindness and love. Friendship is crucial and so is a happy and reasonably balanced life overall. It is possible to live happily on a little while being miserable with much wealth.
Clearly, we need money and goods to live a reasonable life. There is no point in comparing us to our ancestors when standards and expectations of living were very, very different to that what they are today. Neither is there any point in comparing ourselves with those in some of the poorest regions of the world (but we should be concerned and active in helping people far and near to the extent that we can).
In spite of all the progress made in Ireland in the space of a few decades (what was a day’s journey from one side of the island to the other is now a few hours), there are still large inequalities in wealth and income. Just walk down the main street of your city or town and it is clear that we are a country of contrasts. And much poverty is hidden and even subtle. And, yet, we wonder about so many things and constantly strive to increase our wealth and income one way or another. Many of us also spend a lot of money (and time) insuring ourselves against this or that calamity including sickness or loss of job or income.
Now, there is nothing wrong with working hard to provide a good standard of living for ourselves and our families as well as contributing to our communities. However, how much is enough? Where is the thin red line between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’?
In today’s Gospel reading we hear a story about a rich and foolish man who thought life was about striving after more. 'Fool! This very night you will die and who will own all of your wealth' says the Lord? The irony of this story is that it begins with a question to Jesus (as so many stories in the gospel do). ‘Tell my brothers’ to divide the spoils of inheritance fairly. O yes – more family feuds have been fought over dead persons’ estates (or persons thought likely to be dead in the not too distant future). We are not much different today.
The gospels, including that of Luke, do not provide a detailed blueprint for how we should organise society. Rather, the good news provides signposts to how we can reset our priorities and put human dignity first before any institution, ideology or interest. Trusting in a higher love that guides our lives as well as in a code of behaviour that de-thrones the gods of money and social status remains a challenge for Christians today as it did in Jesus’ time. The person in the crowd who sought free legal aid and intervention by Jesus in the case of a family quarrel over inheritance is a proto-type for us today as we confuse ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ and end up never being satisfied because we want what we do not need and we need the very things we do not want to face up to. As always, Luke turns everything upside down in this crazy upside-down world.
Jesus concludes the story or parable by urging us to be ‘rich before God’.
How do we become ‘rich before God’? The answer lies in letting go of our attachments and our cravings for this and that good (or experience). It is about growing inwardly in the grace of God by allowing ourselves to be shaped by gospel values of kindness, generosity and readiness to give as well as to receive. The impulse to be ‘rich before God’ is written deeply in our hearts and it is God’s Holy Spirit that we must follow in the depths of our hearts.
And even those thought to be materially poor may be 'rich' in arrogance, presumption, pride, superiority, resentment towards outsiders and obsessed with religious purity - their own - even if that means stepping over others on their way to heaven or earthly salvation. Material wealth is not the only god that can enslave us. The mindless and god-less pursuit of wisdom, learning, qualifications, position, prestige and power rob us of true purpose as the wise teacher of the book of Ecclesiastes in today's Old Testament reading reminds us. There must be something over and beyond ourselves and our own worlds that is worthy of our toil and efforts. A Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton, writing over half a century ago had this to say:
You are probably striving to build yourself an identity in your work, out of your work and your witness. You are using it, so to speak, to protect yourself against nothingness, annihilation. That is not the right use of your work. All the good that you will do will come not from you but from the fact that you have allowed yourself, in the obedience of faith, to be used by God's love. Think of this more, and gradually you will be free from the need to prove yourself, and you can be more open to the power that will work through you without your knowing it **.
In the Letter to the Colossians, Paul writes:
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (v 2:2)But, we are not called to separate ourselves from others in isolation. Rather, we are called to go out from where we are and meet and work with others whether we always agree or not and let the light of Christ shine in our very broken world. Staying and returning periodically in the 'clochán' is important but we also need to exit and meet the light outside. We do this together and with others and not on our own.
For the Christ came not to enchain but to set free. He came not to condemn but to save. And He came not to impoverish but to enrich. We, too, can be rich in relationship, hope and care. This is what we bring with us at the end and this is what we leave behind for others to treasure. And this is what matters.
Footnotes *
These readings are taken from the Sunday lectionary used in most Catholic churches. The source is BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages (using the New Revised Standard Version - anglicised catholic edition). In some of these excerpts I extend the reading to the full chapter in order to give a better sense of context and meaning.
** From a letter written by Thomas Merton to Jim Forest
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