18^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

 

Readings: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23

                 Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11

                 Luke 12:13-21

 

 

“Take care to guard against all greed…

one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

 

 

            The Lukan version of the Lord’s Prayer is deeply interwoven with the evangelist’s understanding of the kingdom. This is one dominant point we discovered last Sunday. In fact, man’s earnest desire to pray becomes an endless longing until he feels and realizes that God’s kingdom has come one great enemy of he kingdom is greed. That is why Jesus gives a stern warning against this killer vice. In the language of our Lord, greed really kills. Indeed, heaven is closed to the greedy. One has to grow rich in the sight of God. On this, we are called to meditate.

 

1. Greed is basically a personal moral sickness. Theology calls the sin of avarice which is nothing else but man's excessive and selfish desire and clinging to possessions. True, man is born with endless wants. This is even one strong basis of our belief that eternity must exist. But this is also sadly the cause of greed. Since material possessions are more appealing than the "eternal ones," man is most often prone to acquiring them. Little by little, man gets used to having them. And since he is always motivated by his unending wants, time comes when his heart becomes totally drawn to them even before he knows it. And perhaps, it would be too late for him to be awaken how enslaved he has already become. Literally, then, his possessions become his treasure to where his heart belongs. This precisely is what makes the desire sinful. It finds its seat in man's deepest being. Greed is now in his heart!

 

Of course, we are not saying here that man is born greedy, as some believe and say. We stick on the basic proposition that man is born good. But the sin of avarice is just so contaminating that it respects nobody and chooses no situation. "Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” This someone in the crowd comes to Jesus perhaps with all his best intentions. He knows that Jesus is a just and honest man, and for such reason, he thinks he has now the right third person who could help him arrange for a fair settlement. But even then, Jesus becomes quick enough to warn about the danger of greed. This seems to suggest that even good intentions do not warrant. Even in such situation, greed could still be a hidden and suppressed drive which Jesus just easily saw.

 

2.  But greed is not only personal. A much worse and more dreadful form of greed is taking shape: greed in the global level. Although the agents of this global form of greed are still individuals and persons, the operations are done through establishments and institutions which are national, transnational and global. The issue here is no longer person to person, but nation to nation, or better, nations to nations. Thus, the language of this form of greed is globalization, liberalization and the like. The trend is emerging day by day, little by little, region by region. A subtle re-alignment of economic forces is beginning to float, and rich nations ally themselves to catch their common prey, the poor ones. Greed, then, is made manifest through economic control and manipulation in the world market. "Well respected" banks and other renowned financial institutions are their ready instruments which indeed become deadly claws for institutionalized usury. National and world leaders become pawns of opportunism. They are the most likely players of the game in masquerade who use their power and influence to design laws that ensure perpetuity of this avaricious status quo.

 

Here, then, we see the wisdom of Jesus' parable spoken almost two thousand years ago. "There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest…” Jesus begins his parable with a rich man, and in fact, talks about this rich man who has become so greedy. At once, the parable strikes its point. Wealth is not an assurance that man stops accumulating. On the contrary, it even makes him aspire for more. Wealth is no deterrent to greed. It may even be its best appetizer. If good intentions are not a guarantee, much less is wealth. Global greed is a game of the greedy rich and not of the poor who simply desire to put in some little savings for the future. Certainly, the parable speaks of a rich man who stores up riches so that for years he may rest, eat, drink and be merry.

 

 3. "Take care to guard against ail greed.” Whether personal or global in form, greed is always a sin. And it has at least three basic reasons of its sinfulness and immorality.

 

a. It does not acknowledge God as the source of everything. A greedy heart shows no complete surrender to God as the ultimate Provider. And this precisely becomes the case of the greedy person since greed has become a part of his system. Again, "where your treasure is, there will your heart be" (Lk 12:34). Thus, it is in this context that the parable tries to insist: "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” In others, the lesson of the parable reminds us that whatever comes to us is God’s gift, and we have no reason to keep it so selfishly to ourselves. Was it not Jesus too who instructed his disciples with the imperatives of generosity when he said, "You receive it as a gift, give it freely as a gift"? (Mt 10:8)

 

b. Greed is a form of idolatry. This is the necessary consequence of the first. True, no one can serve both God and mammon (cf Lk 16:13). But worse is the case of greed. To the greedy, the mammon becomes his god. No doubt, this is idolatry. He is no longer the master of himself, but his possession masters over him. This seems to happen whether he likes it or not. He may pretend to master over it, but before his conscience he knows that he is deeply enslaved by his own greed. No one can deny this very truth. A simple look at our neighborhood and surroundings will suffice enough.

 

c. The social aspect of greed directly and constantly transgresses the neighbor. Of course, there's no question when one gets rich. This is everybody's aspiration, after all. The question enters when by becoming rich, the other becomes poor. But this is just precisely what happens in greed. One enriches himself at the expense of the other. So here the immorality is clearer than ever: one is rich because the other is poor. Or put it in the other way: one is poor because the other is rich. And this is no fairy tale. Greed makes a person grab even that which is no longer his. In other simple parlance, it is theft. Sadly, this is what is going on in our world. Graft and corruption, usury, imbalance in buying and selling, etc., all of these are theft in broad daylight. And the situation becomes that worse when this thing is translated in the global level. What we have are not only poor nations and peoples, but poorer nations and poorer peoples. And certainly, because of greed they are poorer than ever.

 

"Take care to guard against all greed... one’s life does not consist of possessions.”