Sunday, July 31, 2022 Eighteenth Sunday Ordinary Time

What treasures are you storing?? Alexander the Great: A General and King Who Was Power Hungry, Greedy. Alexander became one of the most powerful and wealthy rulers of ancient history. When Alexander knew he was dying, , he called upon his loyal generals and said, "I will depart from this world soon; I have three wishes; please carry them out without fail." First, I want my doctors to carry my body because I want people to know that no doctor is more powerful than death. So, don't let people take life for granted. Second, I want the path leading to my grave to be scattered with gold, silver, and precious stones as my body is being carried to be buried because I want people to know that not even a fragment of gold will come with me. I spent my whole life chasing power and wealth. Whatever is earned on the earth remains on the earth. I want people to realize that running after wealth and power is a complete waste of their life and time. Third, I want both my hands to be kept dangling out of my coffin because I want people to know that we come into this world empty-handed, and we will go out empty-handed. The king's last words were, "When you bury my body, don't build any monument and keep my hands outside so that the world knows that the person who won the whole world held nothing in his hands when he died." What treasures are you storing up?? Our three readings today seek to set us on a course that leads to eternal life: The Old Testament reading tells us that all things are vanity. When this Scripture was written, it meant “All earthly things are like a breath—here, and then gone.” In the story of the rich man in today’s Gospel, Jesus is not criticizing our seeking what we need but our greed to possess more and more. Jesus uses the occasion to teach the crowd to be on guard against all greed. Just like in Alexander's story, if he had known to stop when he had enough of what he needed, he would have lived a happy life, but he was too busy running after power, wealth, and corrupted things. He was so focused on feeding his greed and lust for power. Again, Jesus does not criticize storing wealth, but only the foolishness of those who only know how to store up material things but forget storing spiritual wealth.

The lesson of the parable is "keep God in the picture.” One should view earthly things, whether negative or positive, from the perspective of eternity. This is precisely what the rich man in the Gospel did not do. He was too busy thinking about himself rather than thinking of God. Thus, he was also too busy storing his wealth rather than sharing it with the poor. He stored up earthly treasure for himself rather than "treasure in heaven" and so was not rich in the eyes of God. The message Jesus wants to announce to us today: Use this world's wealth to be "rich in what matters to God." (Lk 12:21). Before God, we are just poor people. No matter how many possessions, or how many bank accounts we have, it's just zero for God. We are only truly rich in the sight of God when we are generous to the poor. Where do the poor fit into your life? Once a man asked me “Why don’t Catholics just enjoy material things but focus so much on what is unseen and spiritual? In other words, why do we not just enjoy this earthly life? How would you answer him? Which is more important to you material or spiritual, corrupted or uncorrupted, mortality or eternity, and earthly or heavenly life? We are created not only for earthly life but, more importantly, for heavenly life, but that cannot happen unless we start living for heaven from now here on earth because whatever we love the most in this life, we will spend eternity with in the next. We cannot get to heaven on a path cluttered with earthly attachments. We can never live for heaven if we focus only on collecting material and corrupted things. These are all things that are "not rich in what matters to God." As St. Paul said in the second reading today, we need to think and seek what is above, that is, giving, forgiving, and loving. These are what prepare us for heavenly life. Our heavenly life depends on how we have been living here and now on earth. The good news is that we do not have to prepare for our heavenly life by ourselves; we have Jesus, who is always helping us. In order to prepare the way for us to reach heaven, God has done something beyond our understanding: Jesus Christ, who is true God, out of love, became true man and took the lowest human form as a servant. He emptied Himself and even gave up his own life for us all. Jesus became like us to make us like him. He became poor to make us rich in the eye of God.

St. Augustine said that Jesus partook of human nature to have us partake in divine nature. Jesus came to share what is lowly, and humble from humanity so that we may share what is honorable and precious from God. That is the way Jesus has been preparing heavenly life for each of us. What are we doing to prepare for heavenly life? This is the moral lesson from today's readings; Share your earthly wealth to become rich in the heavenly kingdom. The more we give up earthly things, the more heavenly treasure we have. The more we love the poor and give what we have to them, the richer we become in the divine life. We need to use the "riches" of the world properly to make space for true wealth in heaven. As St. Paul said, "put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly," we need to die to what is corrupted: immorality, impurity, passion, greed evil desire, so that the uncorrupted, the divine, and heavenly life may live in us here and now on earth. Are we prepared for heavenly life? Today's Gospel invites us to get rid of all those things which take up so much space in our hearts so that we would have much more room for things of the heaven. It invites us to share the divine treasures in heaven by receiving, using, and sharing what we have for others. It invites us to seek the one thing necessary, which is the heavenly kingdom. If we must stand before God tonight to report on this earthly life, I am hoping that none of us would hear what Jesus said to the rich man. 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?' There is something for us to think about. What treasures will we take with us?? May God bless us all!