A Few Words On "The Word"

August 5, 2007
The 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Luke 12:13-21

The Simple Life

If I asked you to think of a movie in which one character would do absolutely anything just to get more money, it probably wouldn't take you very long to come up with a long list of titles. I can think of several quite easily. We're used to hearing stories that involve people manipulating others just to become a little wealthier. You've probably seen a movie or two in which people may have even died just so someone could turn a bigger profit.

Unless you live in a cave in the middle of nowhere, you know that our culture is full of greed. To a certain degree we're forced to live with it. At some point you'll have to get a job if you want to survive. Unfortunately, sometimes surviving isn't nearly enough for people. It's easy to get caught up in the desire to buy nice things and still have a lot of money left over at the end of the day.

In today's gospel Jesus tries to point out that wealth ultimately doesn't last. He tells a parable about a wealthy man who greedily enjoyed building up his bank account just to see how big it could get. Just as the man truly begins to have more wealth than he can really even handle, God informs him that his death is immanent and that his material possessions are therefore meaningless.

A main point of this parable isn't really that wealth is bad but rather that God measures wealth with a different scale. We want to have enough money to be comfortable and secure which is understandable and legitimate. Unfortunately, it's easy to lose focus and become greedy. Our attitude can easily change and we desire to be rich just for the sake of being rich, refusing to be satisfied by trusting that God will provide.

The reality is that wealth doesn't last and greed leads to many problems. We become selfish and begin to use those around us just to get what we want. We begin to think about our material possessions more than we think about what God wants.

Standing apart from our greedy world is an incredibly hard task. If we are truly going to build peace we cannot lose focus of what's really important. Working to build both wealth and justice just won't work, there are too many people just simply trying to survive. In essence, we must use the resources we are given to become rich in what God wants. Living simply yourself is often the best way to begin humbly working to help others simply live.

Reflection Question

What are the biggest challenges you face to living a simpler life that keeps you focused on peacebuilding? What do you do to overcome these challenges?

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