OMELIE / Omelie EN

04 ago 2019

04/08/2019 – 18th Sunday in O. T. – Year C

04/08/2019 – 18^th Sunday in O. T. – Year C

Reading 1 ECC 1,2; 2,21-23 * Psalm 94 * Reading 2 COL 3,1-5.9-11 * Gospel LK 12,13-21

Insomnia is a very old sickness: the writer of the Ecclesiastes is already talking about it. Thinking of the inanity and passing of all things, and trying to give a meaning to what we daily attend to wearily and worrying, we find often ourselves confused and disappointed. In the Gospel Jesus continues this train of thought focusing our attention on the true and live experience of people who work and work, but then the wealth they gathered becomes a source of quarrels and discord that are carried on for years and decades, involving children and grandchildren. We can look around and notice the same thing: brothers who hate each other, sisters who are jealous of each other, who offend each other going to the point of damaging each other or to dearly pay witches who, with their evil arts, damage their loved ones' businesses or relationships.

People or families absurdly rich cannot find a way to keep their deposits safe. Things happen and you do not know if you are supposed to laugh or to cry! Good, generous parents, after labouring their entire life to leave every comforts to their children, realise they have instead left them as inheritance an unhappy life full of desires and discords that generate infinite solitude.

Jesus would definitely like to avoid us the true dangers of owning riches: meanness, a hard heart, worries, restlessness and prevarication, and many consequences even worse. Therefore He, without fear, advises the one looking for help to get his rights to an inheritance recognised to keep away from the desire to get into any possession. It might appear strange to us: the man would like to have his rights recognised! Rights are important, but the heart is more important! An inheritance can be important, but interior peace and harmony among relatives do not have a price: it is worth to treasure them even if it might require great renounces in terms of money and properties.

There are Christians who took this teaching of Jesus' very seriously: I had the gift to get to know some of them! They, in order not to lose serenity and peace, have let go of a house, or of handsome sums, or of fields, or of other goods. In their heart, the Word of God is a wonderful richness, source of light, wisdom, internal freedom. Getting closer to them you feel like you are finding yourself in an atmosphere of true freedom, availability, truth; you feel like you are appreciated for what you are, because they create an environment that is reflecting the way God is like!

Jesus has enriched His answer with a beautiful parable. This is so simple, that it does not need an explanation, and it is still so fresh that anyone can notice its application. The rich man becoming richer does not stop to think how he could help the poor, but how he could become even richer! The rich getting even richer is only worried about his made-up needs and his pleasures and fun: “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry”!

The teaching, of course, is addressed by Jesus to the poor (only them listen to Him and are able to understand Him!), so they will not desire to change their situation. They are able to be wise, so to make God's wisdom theirs, while who desires to become reach is called by God Himself “fool”! Foolish is whoever in his thoughts does not take into consideration important and eternal things, and therefore his conclusions are ineffective, useless, even damaging to himself and to others. The man who is looking to becoming rich for himself is a fool: he does not take into account that his life is attached to a thin tread and that he might not even get to retirement, he does not take into account that he will need to justify everything he does and decides in front of God, he does not take into account that the wealth gathered does not produce peace and harmony, and not even “merit” in front of God, but above all he does not take into account that he himself has been created to love and, if he does not love, he does not realise his life and he cannot find joy! We will find ourselves in front of God empty-handed, and he will ask what we did with our hands, with our intelligence and with the things he has given us.

Saint Paul makes us hear again the words that are declared during Easter. In the Baptism we have died and risen again, we have left the worldly things to enjoy “what is above”, and we have begun walking in this direction. Let us keep our eyes, so our most inner desire, fixed on Jesus, who is in heaven, close to God, and then we will have the strength to keep “evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry” at bay. So we will not delude each other, as it happens when we let foolishness take over! The passing status of things and happenings, instead of being a source of disappointment and insomnia, will become an encouragement to hold tight on to Jesus, who reigns in heaven forever!