Homily for Luke 12:13-21 Eighteenth Sunday
Today the Holy Spirit wants to knock us out of our complacency, to wake us up, so to speak. In the words that He inspired, we hear that all things in this world are vanity. The wise man writing in our first reading, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is confronting the evils of this life- in particular suffering and death. And they makes no sense to him. He has long observed the undeniable truth that the good and the evil man will both face suffering and death-there is no escape for any of us. This is why in the end the writer can conclude that the pursuit of earthly things is vane. All is vanity.
Now what he is really trying to point out is that all the things of this earth, which take us away from an intimate relationship with God, are worthless, are so are vanity. After all, all the things in this world will have to be left behind including those people we love—so why do we strive to make this world our permanent dwelling especially when it can be such a vale of tears…in this life all must suffer both the good and the bad, all must die leaving behind everything. In this life all things are passing away except for love.
In this life then, we must strive for the higher things, the things of the Spirit of Love—seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Our earthly desires and passions will take us away from our heavenly calling if we seek to fill our desires and passions with created things instead of God. If we set our hearts on comfort and pleasure, not to mention sinful pleasure, they become the very obstacles which prevent us from reaching true happiness; in other words, they become obstacles to reaching God Who is our true happiness.
The truth is, our hearts are made for God alone and for His love. They are not made for things of this world, whether it be the riches of this world or the comfort and pleasures of this world. Only God can fulfill the deepest desires of the human heart. And so our hearts will never rest until they rest in God alone. Our hearts are made for Love alone…love is the only thing we can take with us when we leave this world.
And so, it is this wisdom of our first readings that Jesus in our Gospel today, uses in his advice to the man who approached him. The death of a father had just taken place and the two sons are arguing over, of all things, the inheritance-money, possessions. The reality of death confronts them, not only their father’s death but their own, (for whenever we face the death of a loved one, we also face the inevitability of our own death) and yet the one wants more of the inheritance than what he has received. And so, he appeals to Jesus to intervene on his behalf- after all it’s only fair…This is, of course, sadly, a familiar situation. How many families are torn apart by fighting over the inheritance after a funeral; and sometimes even before the body is cold?
Today, Jesus reads this man’s heart- and finds there, not only greed, but a great lack of love. In the face of his suffering, this man thinks that more material goods will fill the great void of love that is in his heart. And so Jesus responds to the request by telling him a parable. “Where is your treasure?” Jesus asks. “What is you heart set on?” In other words, is it set on the things of this world…or on the things of heaven?… Are you too worried and anxious about obtaining more possessions to be even concerned about your eternal salvation?…are you more worried about obtaining money, than obtaining the greatest of all treasures, Jesus Himself…He who is the source of all Love; He who is in fact, Love Itself?
And so today Jesus, out of love for us, wants to join the Holy Spirit in “waking us.” Jesus want us to seriously reflect that this life is so very short and the next life is so very long; in fact, eternally long. In light of this truth, “are our hearts then really set on obtaining heaven, on obtaining Jesus who is our heaven? “...Are we really taking our conversion and salvation seriously enough? “Is an intimate loving relationship with Jesus THE top priority in our lives?
Jesus, because of His infinite love for us, is reminding us, along with the rich man, of our mortality and warning us against greed and the reliance on riches. He tells us that death will come quickly and maybe even unexpectedly. Death comes for us all sooner or later (sometimes sooner), then judgment, then heaven or hell; a eternity immerse in eternal love or eternity separated from eternal love.
In light of these perennial truths, “are we ready for death; even if it comes today? And even more, Do we truly long to be with Jesus, or are we just plain afraid or even worse indifferent? Fear and indifference come from a lack of love for Jesus…Are our hearts filled with Love for Jesus?
Let me share with you a true story I heard in order to bring this all into sharp focus. A priest I know once gave a homily on this very Gospel. In the homily, He asked the congregation. What if today was your last Mass? The last homily you heard? The last Holy Communion you received? How would you attend this Mass, how would you pay attention and listen? Would you open your heart fully to God’s love? The priest ended by saying, “Are you taking your salvation seriously enough?”
The priest told me that his homily was made very unforgettable when the ushers came forward at this very same Mass to take up the collection. As one of the ushers genuflected before the altar he suffered a massive heart attack, and right then and there dropped dead on the spot…. For him, it was his last Mass, his last homily, and he didn’t even get a chance to receive Jesus into his soul one last time... I am sure that nobody in church that day ever forgot that Gospel and homily.
And so let us ask ourselves the same question the priest asked at the end of his homily, “Are we taking our salvation seriously enough?” Are we really willing to risk living an eternity separated from the Love of our heavenly Father by taken it all for granted, by assuming we’ve already made it or thinking there is plenty of time?.... At this point in our lives, are our hearts really full of Love for our God?
And so today, Jesus again speaks to us of the great necessity of prayer especially prayer before His True presence in the Holy Eucharist in order to set our hearts on fire for love of God. One’s life does not consist of possessions, but in obtaining and possessing God (the one thing that Matters).” Prayer is that action which sets our heart obtaining God instead of obtaining more things of this world.
And the secret to prayer is Eucharistic Prayer because it is prayer before the Heart of Jesus. As a result, prayer before the Holy Eucharist puts our hearts in touch with the heart of Heavenly Father so that our lives will never losing meaning and become vain. Eucharistic Prayer is the most efficacious way to increase the amount of love in our hearts because it prayer asking to obtain Jesus who is Divine Love; it is prayer to obtain Jesus Who is the Love of the Father offered and made present for each one of us out of love for us.
And so, we must center our lives on Jesus truly physically present on the Altar in the tabernacle in order to live good Christian lives, holy lives in order to be ready when ever death comes for us. The Eucharist is the one thing that matters, because it is God still on Earth out of love for us. Today Jesus is teaching us that we don’t give to heaven merely by being good, we get to heaven by loving God over and above all things. We get to heaven by being madly in love with God our Creator and radically living that love out in all aspects of our daily lives, especially by loving one another for love of God and the source of this love for us is the Holy Eucharist.
Let us turn to the Mother of the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to help us never take our salvation for granted. May she help us stay close to her Son in the Eucharist so that we never become too attached to the things of this world but instead will become more and more attached to the Creator of the world. Then our lives will bear great fruit, the fruit of salvation for others and for ourselves. If we ask her, she will help us to place our hearts often next to the tabernacle, which is under the cross. (The cross shows us how much God loved us and the tabernacle show us how much God loves us now.)
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