Weekly Reflection
Sunday, 1 August 2010
18th Sunday of the
Year – Let go and let God
In the 3rd Century
BC, Greek influences were being felt throughout Palestine, especially in
Jerusalem. Alexander the Great kicked the Syrians out of their captive states.
He died in 323 BC. Two Greek generals divided the empire between them. The Jews
were ruled by these generals and their successors, more or less benignly, until
an upheaval in about 170 BC.
After that the
Romans took over. We know about them. They were there when Jesus lived and
died.
I mention those few
historical facts to provide a context for our first reading (Ecclesiastes 1: 1,
2: 21-23).
The dynamism of
Greek civilisation came from its confidence in the unlimited resources of human
thinking. Greek philosophers strove to explain all the mysteries of human
destiny.
Western humanism
does the same today, ‘Ecclesiastes’, a pen name meaning ‘he who gathers the
people together’, assumed the persona of King Solomon to teach 3rd Century BC
Jews the wisdom necessary to combat Greek humanism.
For example, he
opposed Greek optimism. He taught Jews to face the human dilemma, especially
mortality. Another example – live the present moment to the full by solving
problems, within reach, day by day. Enjoy the happiness that God has in store
for you today, leave the rest up to Him!
As charismatic
Catholics have taught us: ‘Let go and let God!’
Again, our gospel
passage (Luke 12: 13-21) easily follows the core theme of the first reading
from Ecclesiastes.
The parable of the
foolish rich man certainly belongs to an ancient tradition of wisdom literature.
There’s nothing new under the sun is there? Two modern examples of wisdom film
craft come to mind – ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’.
Back to our parable.
Jesus seems to have refused by the way, to arbitrate between two brothers
contesting an estate. He had bigger fish to fry! He sent the two contenders to
the proper authority but profited from the incident to raise the debate to a
higher level: are riches worth so much worry and strain? Social analysts regularly
alert us to status anxiety. It’s foolish to forget that death will deprive us
of all wealth.
It is genuine wisdom
to make oneself rich in God’s sight by sharing our wealth while we live.
The rich fool in the
parable discovered too late that material wealth is not a permanent possession.
Because he had
devoted all his energy to amassing wealth through property, he had nothing
special he could call his own, and death disclosed his essential poverty. The
only possession worthy of human striving are those death can’t take away.
Jesus would have our
Catholic Church of the 21st Century be prophetic about wealth!
We need to create a
more authentic human community, which cannot exist when only a few control
wealth, culture and decision making.
