Sunday the 3rd of August 2025 - The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23/ Ps 90(89)/ Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11/ Luke 12:13-21

There are several storage companies available locally advertising that they can store stuff for us. We seem to live in a time when we acquire loads of stuff, and an industry has popped up to provide places to store it. All this stored stuff is not being used because it is in storage and out of immediate reach. The question then is, what use is all this stuff if it is simply stored away? The message from today’s readings is that we cannot measure our success in life only on how much stuff we accumulate. The first reading brings out the irony of those people who work hard to achieve status and possessions in life end up leaving it all to others who have made little or no effort to deserve it. The Gospel passage follows much the same theme telling the story of the wealthy farmer who foolishly invested all in the passing things of this limited life. In the letter to the Colossians Paul calls them to set their sights on the things of God where their true destiny lies. Paul’s list of earthly desires to be avoided are very much what the world today tempts us with.

To us the meaning of vanity is an excessive belief in our own abilities and a desire to appear successful, useful, and attractive in the eyes of others. The older understanding of vanity which would have been understood by the people of the Old Testament is a feeling of futility. If all the effort we put into life is for selfish purposes, reliant on ourselves and not on God, then all that effort will ultimately be futile. If all we achieve in this life are things that pass with the end of our lives, then indeed all has been futile. We must seek the things of true value that last beyond this life and are the treasures of eternal life. The Psalm reminds us of the need to look beyond this life which is fleeting compared with eternity.

Our familiarity with certain scripture passages can lead us to skim through them quickly without picking up on the message they might have for us as individuals, at a particular time in our lives, messages that can differ depending on our circumstances. The gospel parable was prompted by a person in the crowd recognising Jesus as a teacher and asking him to arbitrate for him in his desire to gain his inheritance early. This prompted Jesus to warn of the dangers of coveting earthly possessions which he illustrated in the parable of the wealthy farmer. This man had forgotten that God is the owner of all things and the things we have and the blessings we receive in this life are gifts to us. We are merely stewards of the gifts God provides for us and we are underserving of them. The farmer had become self-possessed and focussed entirely on himself as shown by his use of ‘I’ and ‘my’ repeatedly in the story. We can be at risk of becoming possessed by our possessions as this man did, believing that all we have is due to our own efforts, leading us to push God aside never stopping to think that it might be God who has provided us with all we have. This man put the thought of his inevitable death out of his mind pushing God and the thought of eternity out of his life prompting God to call him ‘fool’ as the demand for his life at the height of his earthly success was made.

Pope Saint Gregory the Great taught that when we care for the needs of the poor we are not being generous with what is ours but merely giving them what is theirs. We are not doing virtuous works of charity and mercy we are paying a debt of justice. Life is not measured by our possessions but by sharing what we possess with others. The riches of this earth are for everyone, and individuals should not be possessing them and hording them into barns or storage facilities where they are denied their use by those who need them.

We must avoid the dangers of futile vanity and question those things we think are certainties in this world, such as wealth, possessions, excessive pride in our own achievements or the admiration of others. These are the things beloved by the world and will pass away with the world. We do not want to be called a fool by God who can call us to him this very night if that is his plan. Then all we have achieved; all we have acquired will be picked over by others and worthless to us then.

All we have in this life has been given to us as a gift from God and should be used wisely not only for ourselves but for others. Becoming possessed by our possessions will lead to the foolishness of self-reliance and will deny the use of the gifts of creation to others. The certainty of earthly death must not be pushed from our mind but rather used to control our desires for the passing things of this life while we store up the treasures of eternal life. We need to seek the authentic values of the gifts given by God rather than the false values sold to us by the world. Let us seek the things from above; honesty, integrity, generosity, and simplicity, always  sharing our good fortune with others.

God Bless Brendan