Fresh Dew Media

 18^TH SUNDAY, YEAR C: REFLECTION BY FR. JULIAN EKEH

THEME: IN HIS RICHES MAN LACKS WISDOM

(Luke 12:13-21)

The accumulation madness has really dealt us a grievous blow all round. The madness has eaten up the better part of our people on every side. It has eaten our time that we no longer think of any other thing except having and having and how to have all the more. Man no longer thinks of what happens after having. Does it begin and end with having? After having what next? Who is the source of all we wish to have? What are we to do with what we want to have? Man lacks wisdom indeed in his riches. Little wonder the Psalmist added: "he is like the beasts that are destroyed." Sad enough, man dares too to take this attachment to riches to be of greater value even in the very before of God. Thus, in the Gospel of today, the man was not concerned about Jesus and His teaching but on what he wanted. Between Jesus and mammon, he made his choice and even told Jesus about it.

DIVIDED BY RICHES

There remains a number of good values that wealth and riches can't afford. In the real sense of it, wealth should enhance development, peace, harmony, order, and understanding. But what do we see?  Division, court cases, fighting, lifetime enmity, and killings. The person that asked Jesus to bid his brother divide the inheritance with him shows the truism in what we are talking about.  Brothers can no longer live in peace because of inheritance and riches. People of the same country no longer act as one because of national cake that must be divided.  In fact, Jesus warned against covetousness. Because in most of the cases, what is being sought after is what really belongs to the other. Yes, to the other. The farmland of others for grazing cattle, the oil at another man's backyard, the business of others, the life of others, etc. It is indeed disheartening how wealth has divided a lot of communities. Check out all the communities with mineral resources and see how they slaughter each other for what should serve their common good. Look well and see how divided our country is because we rush after money bags during elections and rig in evil leaders into power. We are indeed dissected and divided by what should be the dividends of riches.

WHO AND WHAT ARE WE ACCUMULATING FOR

If only those who accumulate riches excessively and wickedly are to live to see how they are wasted, they should appreciate better the preacher of 'vanity upon vanity'. Is it possible for the governors to see how the investments they built for themselves with pensioners' money will be mismanaged? They will pray for the opportunity to correct their mistakes. If the former governors and contractors should come back to see how the cornered contracts are announcing their failures and monumental foolishness, they will seek an appointment to right their wrongs. If all we are struggling for is not the good of all and glory of God, then we have failed. Let's stop the greed. Let's stop being obsessed by possession. 

WHAT GOD HAS IN STORE FOR US AND WHAT WE HAVE IN STALL FOR OURSELVES

Man wants to get it all here. Acquisition, possession, wealth, and riches are the languages in his dictionary. How to destroy and build better houses, how to do away with banks here to bank abroad, how to invest here, and there are all that matters to man. He no longer considers anything to be better than these. He doesn't care again about who he is and who he is called to be. Man reduces himself and his enterprise rather to materials. Man is not just material but spiritual. And because man is storing for his material needs without considering his spiritual needs, God makes a demand of his soul. What then shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul? Let's have a rethink.

RESOLVE/ BENEDICTION

God created us to be wise and use the things He has blessed us with wisely to glorify Him. Let us not use them to cause death, thereby turning the blessings of God to a curse. Let our eyes be on things of heaven. Let us always have recourse to God so as not to attract the name 'fool!'

Let us store up treasures for ourselves in heaven where it shall never be destroyed. May we thank God for the abundant blessings He has lavished upon our world. May divine wisdom save us from the foolishness of greed, covetousness, and undue attachment to riches. May God rain down upon us the abundance of His heavenly blessings.

May God bless His word in our hearts.

LET US PRAY

Oh, merciful God, we have failed You by the foolish choices we make on a daily basis. We choose earthly riches, leaving the heavenly. Look down and see where Your people are. Because of lack of wisdom, our sense of values is being distorted, leading to anarchy, terrorism, backwardness, and divisions. Bring us together to think and act as one. Grant that our choices from today will be to the greater glory of Your Holy Name and the salvation of humanity from economic, spiritual, moral, and political crises. Hear us and bless us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Happy Sunday to you. (18th Sunday. Ordinary Time, Yr C)

Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh