'Hear the Word!' by Deacon Charles Paolino: Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes

(Chapter 1:2; 2:21-23)

At first glance, the message in this reading may seem morbid: Why should a person labor and worry in order to accumulate wealth and goods when he or she will die anyway and leave everything to others who didn't work for it? In reality, though, the message is just common sense. What's wanted is a sense of balance. A person needs only so much of the material world; anything beyond that is excess and a symptom of selfishness since so many live without the necessities, never mind the comforts of life. As with many things, we have our model in God himself, who could exist in perfect contentment without creating anything outside of himself. But, as the old catechism reminded us, "God made us to show forth his goodness and to share with us his everlasting happiness in heaven."

Responsorial Psalm

(Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17)

Speaking of morbidity, the psalmist today tells God what God already knows, namely what's in store for us: "You make an end of them in their sleep; the next morning they are like the changing grass, which at dawn springs up anew, but by evening wilts and fades." But while death is inevitable, God didn't create us to spend our lives brooding over the end, but rather to make the most of life, and that means sharing it with each other, living generously and justly, growing every closer to God. After all, life in his presence is a goal to be anticipated, not an end to be feared.

A reading from Saint Paul's Letter to the Colossians

(Chapter 3:1-5; 9-11)

In this letter, Saint Paul encourages the Christians in Colossae—and, by extension, encourages us—to spend our whole lives mindful of our destiny, which is not the grave but rather life forever in the presence of God. "If you were raised with Christ," Paul writes, "seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth." Evoking the effect of baptism, Paul writes that Christians "have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self." The "new self" turns away from anything that binds it to earth and, instead, imitates Christ in everything.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

(Chapter 12:13-21)

This passage recounts Jesus telling the parable of the rich man whose land produced an usually good harvest, which did not prompt him to share his excess with those who were in need but rather to build bigger barns so that he could keep everything for himself. At its heart, Jesus' message is that we were not created to live as though we had no stake in the lives of others. To be truly alive, in Jesus' view, is to consider the wellbeing of others as just as important as our own. “Take care to guard against all greed," Jesus says, "for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Rather, it consists of solidarity with every other human being, with everything that lives, and with the planet itself.

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Photograph by Geronimo Giqueaux on Unsplasn.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL). All rights reserved.

Charles Paolino is managing editor at RENEW International and a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Metuchen.