Homily: July 31, 2022, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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The rich man in Jesus’s parable asked himself, “What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?”

Isn’t that a good problem to have? To have so much in abundance, more than what he can keep or need.

How would you advise this rich man?

Maybe some of you might suggest to him, “Give the extra to someone who has nothing.”

On Friday, I harvested a handful of nice eggplants from my garden. I was very happy with the produce, and I had the same question as the rich man: what should I do with them?

But my harvest was not much, not enough to cook and share with my brother priests in the house and I don’t have time this weekend to cook it. I definitely did not want to store it. Finally, I gave it to a friend. She was happy and I was very simply pleased.

Even though it was a small harvest of eggplants, I had to think and make a good decision about it. Can you imagine someone with a huge harvest like the rich man or someone with a lot of possessions and property and money…they must be thinking about it all the time, in order to make the best decision to manage it, right? How could they be free to think about God or anything else?

The first reading reminds and warns us “vanity of vanities!  All things are vanity!” Everything of earth is vanity. When it is time for us to go, we have to leave everything behind, nothing goes with us.  None of our earthly possessions is helpful or useful for our life in heaven. All that ‘labor under the sun’ to attain and keep it, such that ‘even at night his mind is not at rest’, is it at all worth it?

A very wealthy man was dying. He prayed to St. Peter asking for one special request, that he may bring some of his possessions to heaven. St. Peter rejected it at first, but the dying man begged. St. Peter finally allowed him to bring just one suitcase along.

The man died and St. Peter met him at the pearly gates. He brought with him a huge case measuring 4 by 2 meters. St. Peter was bewildered, “I told you to bring just a suitcase, what is this?”

The man replied, “This is a suitcase, just big in size!”

Anyhow, St. Peter let him enter and asked him to open the suitcase to show him what he brought. It was full of pure gold bars. St. Peter was bemused and asked him, “All the wall and floor tiles in our toilets are made of these, why did you bring more?”

It is a blessing to be rich and own many possessions but never let your possessions own you. You are created to be free. Whatever we own in this life is to make it easier for us to live but should not make it harder for us to leave. All that we have are blessings from God, that we may share this blessing with others. If we accumulate but not share, the heavier load will make our journey to heaven slower. In this pilgrimage to heaven, less luggage means a smoother ride, an easier journey, a happier arrival.

When both my parents died, we did not have any issues managing their estate because they had little possessions. They even had very little clothes, but they left behind lots of beautiful memories. Peacefully they went, and peace they left for us.

In the second reading, St. Paul exhorts us to “Seek what is above…not of what is on earth.”

And in the parable, God makes us think, “the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?”

What Jesus is teaching us, is to be ‘rich in what matters to God’.

What are the things that matter to God?

Love, compassion, faith, trust. That we give time and share our possessions with others. That we are compassionate like Him, that we believe in Jesus and trust in Him.

Travel light, and you will travel far. Amen.

Fr. Nivin Scaria 

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