Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 3, 2025 — Year C
Readings: Eccl 1:2; 2:21-23 / Ps 90 / Col 3:1-5, 9-11 / Lk 12:13-21
by Rev. Mr. Mark De La Hunt, Permanent Deacon

When you are thinking about money and possessions, what comes into your mind? What emotions and desires are evoked in you? It is good to occasionally bring to the Lord Jesus our thoughts on money and possessions, so that He can order them according to His will. That is what the Catholic Church has done by selecting today’s readings.

Today’s gospel, for example, is from a long sermon in front of a large crowd. It begins in Luke Chapter 12 and goes all the way into Chapter 13. In the passage just prior to today’s gospel, Jesus warns us that God has the power to cast us into hell after we die. (Lk 12:5) Shortly after Jesus warns us about hell, the man in today’s gospel interrupts Him with his request that Jesus command his brother to share his inheritance. Obviously, Jesus sensed there was more to the request than fairness. For Jesus said, “Take care to guard against all greed…for one’s life does not consist of possessions.” His words take on greater importance when you know He just told them about hell.  St. Paul’s words in the second reading spell out more clearly the sin of greed. He called it idolatry, which we know is a very serious sin.

Our tendency to overly fixate on money, and the things we can buy with it, is not only in the Bible. It is in popular culture too. Chris Janson’s humorous country hit song, Buy Me a Boat, has this lyric, “I know everybody says money can’t buy happiness, but it could buy me a boat.”  That sentiment did not work out so well for American financier Bernie Madoff, who made billions of dollars and owned three boats, including an 88-ft luxury yacht. He died in 2021, while serving the 12th year of his 150-year prison sentence for cheating people out of their money. He got away with the sin of greed for years, until in 2008, his own sons reported him to the authorities.

Madoff would have done well to pray over today’s first reading. “For what profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart to which he has labored…All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity (or meaningless).” (Eccl 2:23) If our financial goals and desires are rooted in this world, then they will become distorted. They can imprison us, if you will, with a desire that cannot be fulfilled, but that ensnares us, becoming an all-consuming desire.

Money, like all the goods of this world, is not good or bad. It is morally neutral. Accordingly, the Bible has examples of the greedy rich, like the rich man who ignored the beggar Lazarus, and the generous rich, like the centurion Cornelius. (Lk 16:19-31; Acts 10: 1-2) The greedy rich man ended up in hell. Cornelius, on the other hand, was visited by an angel who said to him, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God (Acts 10:4).” He became the first gentile to become Christian, baptized by none other than St. Peter.

The reality is we need money to care for ourselves and our families. Working for that money is also important, as it strengthens our God-given dignity. And as we see from Cornelius’s charity in Acts, giving money to the Church and to those in need elevates our work to heaven, where it is seen by God.

The “rich fool” that Jesus spoke of in the gospel had developed a disordered desire for possessions. Disordered means not ordered to God’s will. Jesus condemned him because the man “stored up treasure for himself, but was not rich in what matters to God.” (Lk: 12:21) That man had been very successful in using his God-given talents to produce a “bountiful harvest.” That was a good thing, assuming he did it in a principled manner.

Where the wheels came off was how he responded to his success. Instead of giving thanks to God, who gave him his talent and ability, made the crops grow, and gave him his very life, and instead of giving some of his bounty to those in need, he “stored it up for himself.” (Lk 12:18) He was duped by the Father of Lies, the devil, into idolizing God’s gift instead of thanking God the Giver. He began to think, as Father Gadenz summarizes, that there is no need for God, and he put his trust in his possessions. Luke reveals this by sharing the rich fool’s inner thoughts writing, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” (Lk 12:19) But then he died.

So how do we avoid this eternal trap? How do we avoid beginning to idolize the gifts of work, money, and possessions to the point they rob us of the greatest treasure in the world:  love, love of wife, love of children (Madoff’s sons had him imprisoned), and eternal life in heaven abiding in God, who is Love? The answer is in scripture and human nature.

In scripture, we read in Proverbs: “Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.” (Prv 10:2) And the author of Sirach wrote, “Store up almsgiving in your treasury, and it will save you from every evil.” (Sir 29:12) But what did Jesus say?

If you keep reading today’s twelfth chapter of Luke, Jesus gives us much guidance on avoiding the “idolatry of greed” by being in relationship with His Father who cares for us. He talks about how his Father takes care of the birds and adorns the fields with flowers and says, “…how much more will He clothe you—you of little faith!  And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world (rich fools like Madoff) runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well… Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses (or money bags) for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Lk 12:28-34)

As for human nature, what we pour our time and talent into is what we care about. We feel affection and appreciation for our homes, boats, gardens, animals, arts, crafts, careers, and music. We pour so much of ourselves into them that they become a part of us. St. Augustine said we are what we love. This is why it is so important that we guard against greed by pouring some time to be in relationship with Jesus through prayer, the sacraments, adoration, and worship (Mass). Notice that by participating actively in Mass we do all four to these spiritual exercises or acts of piety.

These works of humble piety develop in us an appreciation and love for Jesus through His Church. Pursuing Jesus through our faith fans the flame He placed in us at our Baptism (what St. Paul, in the second reading, called being raised with Christ) and that He strengthens in Confirmation. This flame, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, enables us to love as God loves, which is best experienced in the love between a husband and wife. They love each other unconditionally, with tender mercy when called for. And in caring for their children, they train to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked. This is why marriage and child rearing are so important. It is where we train in charity, to be like God. It is where we learn the godly use of work, money, and possessions.

All of this is predicated on a childlike faith that we are not an accident of nature and probability. We believe we were intentionally made by God out of pure love, and that this world is not our home. Therefore, we do not need to grasp for all the wealth we can accumulate. Instead, this world is where we train in holiness, with the grace of Jesus Christ, in communion with the Holy Spirit. We open ourselves to God’s love and then pour it out by loving those in need, family first and then the poor, the sick, the lonely, the imprisoned, and those who are mourning (make time for funerals).

Love is the only treasure that each of us will be able to take into heaven. That is why Jesus’ words that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” are so important. We want our hearts to be taken up into heaven when we die. We confess this at every Mass when, after Father tells us, “Lift up your hearts,” we cry out, “We lift them up to the Lord.” Recall too, that loving others requires self-sacrifice.  Father will offer up that sacrificial love in a few moments in the Eucharistic Prayer when he prays that his sacrifice and ours may be acceptable to God. Those words are only possible if our hearts are on the Giver and not His gifts.

Yes, money can buy a boat, and that can be a good thing. The first pope, Peter, owned one. But only when Peter used his boat in accord with Jesus’ will did it become an instrument for his conversion of heart and for the good of others (someone got to eat those 153 large fish). Let us seek his intercession. St. Peter, pray for us that we, like Cornelius whom you baptized, will use our money and possessions for the love of God, family, and those in need. Amen.