Age and Greed

It seems to me that our life should be spent, pursuing the good, and trying to get good at making good decisions.  We learn to love Christ with all our hearts and he gives us His eyes, His heavenly eyes, so that we see not as the world sees.  I imagine we grow in virtue, and fall away from sin, sin doesn’t even entice us anymore, either because we’re too old and lack the energy and impetus, lack the opportunity, of sin, or better yet, we’ve become so conformed to the good that the bad just doesn’t appeal to us anymore.

An old expression goes: “You’re too heavenly minded to do any earthly good!”

In order to do any earthly good, we must be heavenly minded!

In the movie, Into The Wild the main character, Chris McCandless dies after his adventures, searching, poverty, as he was starving and cold and living in the Alaska wild.  Facing death he came up with the insight.

“Happiness is only real when shared.”

What a waste he would have been had he survived that poisonous berry, but then not allowed that insight from God to affect his life thereafter.

And that’s what God says to this man, as he stares at death this night, “You fool! this night your life will be demanded of you.”

[With each passing birthday we ought to rejoice not just in how great we are, but that we are one year closer to our encounter with Christ!]

Today’s Gospel should provide some guidance and cause us to think about retirement.  A man, let’s say, works all his adulthood, and retires at 65.  Average life span is what? 75-80.  So, a person works, and then retires. And work is good.  With work you can glorify God and build the Kingdom of heaven here on earth.  Work is what was given as a remedy in the garden, work is purifying, work is honorable, it keeps you busy and out of trouble.  And we all have our own things.

So perhaps, if you died at 65, having just gone to confession, and received anointing of the sick, and you’ve done good, gone to Mass, prayed every day, grown as a human being in saintliness, I’d have really high hopes that this soul is going to heaven!

However, lets say you retire and for 10-20 years.  What will you do with your time?  Perhaps when you were younger, your time was more determined for you.  And now, you have to recreate your plan of life, your schedule, so that in the twilight of your life you are not falling into sin, into sloth, into complacency, into presumption.

What does the rich fool do? He says, “I’m good, I’m great, I planned well, I’m a genius, I’ve done my work, now I rest, what other people?”

We don’t stop living in a world with others, with the rest of the body of Christ just because I’m retired.  Our time will still be held accountable as is all our time throughout our lives.

for example, be careful online, let’s not go to hell ten minutes at a time, wasting our time with all the cool things that everyone else is doing.

Some charisms of old age:

Disinterestedness,

Memory,

Experience,

Interdependence

A more complete vision of life, our life is dominated by haste by agitation, and frequently by neurosis.  It is a distracted life, a life in which the fundamental questions about the vocation, dignity and destiny of man are forgotten.  The third age is also the age of simplicity and contemplation. [[ PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE LAITY, The Dignity of Older People and their Mission in the Church and in the World From the Vatican, 1 October 1998. StanisLaw Rylko]]

But the truth is, at 65 or 75, at 15 or 35, you have already died to your own designs and pleasures in this life, listen to Blessed Paul:

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

Your life is spent Putting to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality (porneia - sexual immorality), impurity, passion (Lust?), evil desire, and the greed/covetousness that is idolatry.

This rich fool grew in greed as he retired!  But perhaps he had been growing in greed since his youth.  And people just called him an entrepreneur!  What ingenuity! What a market strategist! What a savant!

I think greed is a hidden vice, not so obvious, but one that we seriously must look at, ask yourself this week, am I greedy?

Its not lust, but its surely damnable.

“But Father, I don’t want riches and gold! I just want a comfortable life, is that so wrong?”

This guy wanted grain and comfort, so maybe its not always terribly obvious.  And yea, maybe comfort is the wrong thing to seek.  “I only seek your will Lord, let me use my treasures and my time well, show me your paths that I may walk in them.”

Maybe we don’t pray for a long life, a life too long that will get us in trouble? Maybe we don’t pray for too many riches, because once you have them, you are accountable for them!

[Hence though old people seek more greedily the aid of external things, just as everyone that is in need seeks to have his need supplied, they are not excused from sin if they exceed this due measure of reason with regard to riches.] II-II Q118 Art1, Reply Obj. 3 - Aquinas

Covetousness exceeds what is needed.

What harrowing words from our Lord, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you.”

One day the Lord will speak to us and say either, “well done, good and faithful servant, come enter into the joy of the Lord!” or “You fool!”

We Live from this perspective.  Hell is real, And Heaven is real, we pursue heaven and storing up treasures there, that love of God and love of neighbor which is the only thing you take before you on judgment day.