RICH IN WHAT MATTERS TO GOD.

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR C.
August 5, 2007.
(First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 2: 21-23)
(Second Reading: Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11) (Gospel Reading: Luke 12: 13-21)

RICH IN WHAT MATTERS TO GOD.

There is a kind of wealth that matters to God, says the gospel. And this wealth is not that of the person "who stores up treasures for himself" (Luke 12:21).

Saint Paul, in the second reading, points out that the wealth that matters to God is that which allows a human being to renew himself "into the image of his creator", the image of the "New self" (Colossians 3:10), the image of the Lord Jesus himself, who brings all human beings into unity with themselves and with God.

Therefore, all what human beings possess is to be used for the purpose of bringing about unity among all human beings. Possessions matter to God only if they are used to bring human beings closer to themselves and to God.

Possessions, depending on the way they are used, can contribute to unity or division: If possessions are shared by all human beings (that is, if possessions are used for the benefit of all human beings), they bring about unity; whereas if possessions are accumulated in a few hands (that is, if possessions are used for the benefit of a few while others are deprived of them), they bring about division.

The Greed of the Rich Man.
According to the gospel greed moves the rich person(1) to acquire his wealth through:
- accumulation of possessions in excess of what he needs to meet his human needs; and
- dispossession of the workers who produced the wealth. The "bountiful harvest" (Luke 12:16) was certainly materialized by the labor of human beings, labor whose fruits ended up in the hands of the rich man.

The end result of greed is, therefore, the utilization of possessions for the sole benefit of the rich person with exclusion of other human beings, thus creating a division among humans - the poor and the rich.

The economic systems prevalent in our present world have institutionalized(2) the division of human beings in poor and rich, thus perpetuating the fragmentation of the human race, and maintaining a world "order" contrary to God's order.

The greed for possessions in our world has moved human beings away from God, has placed possessions above human beings, and has turned men into actual worshipers of their own possessions.

Saint Paul in his Letter to the Colossians advises us to put an end to "the greed that is idolatry", which means that we need to end using possessions as a source of division between human beings and between human beings and God. We must use our possessions for what they are intended, namely, for unity among all human beings.

Saint Paul is telling us that we are to restore our image of the "new self" by living in a way that no possession can be greater that a human being.

True wealth comes from living in a world of unity between all human beings. Our life of unity between all human beings and our unity with God is what makes us rich in what matters to God.
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Footnotes.
(1) The use of the term "rich person" here, can be equally substituted with terms such as: rich economic class, rich interest group, or rich country, for greed affects not only the individual but also a collectivity. That is to say that just as an individual can be greedy, so can a collectivity.
(2) Society's institutions are designed to uphold the values and principles of the dominant class. The economic system prevalent in a class society is predicated on the division of human beings in poor and rich, and the "legitimization " of the premise that the rich have a "right" to get richer while the poor must "conform" with the dispossession of which they are victims.