18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C, 04/08/2019

What is my attitude towards material things? Do I make them more important in my life, and become the center of my life? The readings suggest that I am more important than my material possession.

Qoheleth; “the Preacher” says all vanity is vanity. He gives a skeptical and pessimistic view of life. The gospel acclamation reminds us the need to be poor in spirit to possess the Kingdom.

The Psalmist encourages us to praise and be thankful to God than living in worries. We should listen to God’s voice who is our protection.

St Paul exhorts us to keep our greed away and turn our desires and thoughts to God alone; for he is everything to us, he is our richness.

The gospel gives us the risk of wealth from taking the center stage in our life and displacing God from his rightful position in our lives. The rich fool reaction to God’s blessing is full of selfishness, inward turning, self- absorbed and self-indulgence.

We live in a society in which the highly searched goal is material possession even often at the pain of the poor. We want more and more that the very essence of our lives is having. If one has nothing, then one is nothing. We have become slaves of material things and today we should pose and ask ourselves: where do I invest my energy, time, talents and so forth?

The rich fool had invested everything in his material possessions other than his being. Our question today and always should be: What is truly important to us? “To be” or “To have”?.

Christian Action This Week: Spend some time in prayer listening to what God is telling you about your relationship with yourself, others and money.

Joy and Peace.