GOSPEL: LUKE 12:(13-21)
"The Vanity of Vanities!"
Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord,
Riches and wealth come from God (Prov. 10:22) and no one succeeds by his (her) own strength; it all comes from God (1 Samuel 2:9). With these in mind, we ought to see riches as divine provisions to aid our eternal journey. This means that riches should not be allowed to master our lives; that is, when riches become vain. The Psalmist (62:10b) advised that when riches increase, we should not set our heart upon them.
Beyond vain riches, we are called upon in today’s Gospel to focus on the giver of riches; God Himself. The rich man in the Gospel does not appear to have committed any acts of evil. He is simply consumed by his desire to grow richer and he is totally immune from what goes on around him. Yet he is condemned for being insular and closing himself off from others. Like the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, it is not the sin of commission but that of omission, that failure to act justly that constitutes a reproachable behavior.To focus on God in the midst of the riches around us is a direct call on us to be charitable. Imagine if the rich man in the Gospel had said to himself: “I will give out the excess from my harvest to the poor and needy!” Do you think a demand would have been made of his soul that very day? On the contrary, God would have allowed him to live longer and blessed him more to give out even more to others. When we share, we represent and reproduce God, who is the ideal giver and sharer.
One of the constant themes of Pope Francis’ pontificate has been the willingness to suffer and risk everything for the sake of the Gospel. For him, Christian living has little to do with insularity, comfort, complacency and mediocrity. A self-serving and self-preserving mentality goes against the very nature of what it means to be a Christian and Church. In the Joy of the Gospel, he says: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security”.
As Christians, we cannot remain content with the status quo, especially when that status quo is less than what God wants for us as individuals and as a community. We cannot be salt and leaven if we allow our Christian conscience to be desensitized by the inequality, injustice and inhumanity in our society and in the world.
Let us move on and fix our eyes and minds on heavenly things, and not only on the vain things of this earth. There is a saying that: “Real men and women love Jesus and fellow men, and not riches!” Indeed, real men and women are those who in spite of their fame, wealth, achievements, etcetera, love God above all things.
God Bless,
Rev. Father Frank Kyazze
