August 3, 2025 at Saint William Parish in Naples, FL
Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 2:21-23 + Psalm 90 + Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11 + Luke 12: 13-21
One Sunday, years ago when I was having trouble paying the bills at the parish, I finally took the matter to the pulpit. After Mass, a clearly angry man walked up to me and said: “All you ever talk about is money” and then stormed off. I said to myself if that were true, we probably would not be in the shape we’re in. Later, remembering that incident, I did some research to discover something that surprised me. Nearly one third of the parables deal with money one way or another. If there is one thing we humans need and care about, it is money. It is the most frequent cause of human conflict in one way or another, and at the root of most divorces.
On the surface, it might seem that Jesus is telling us that money ought to have no importance for us at all. After all, God takes care of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Why worry? Quit work, spend it all now, and stop passing that basket at Mass? God will provide. Right? If we stay on the surface with this matter, we’re all going to be hungry and homeless. God is not suggesting that we should live as though money had no importance. He just reminds us that where your treasure is, there will be your heart.
The parable we hear today puts before us a man who is very successful in the eyes of this world. He is not a criminal. He has good land that he has used wisely making him wealthy. He is not wasteful or careless. He builds good and better barns to save and care for what he has. There is no suggestion that he is unjust, but Jesus says he is a fool, and the reason is that he lives completely in and for himself. Listen to his conversation! He talks to himself all the time. He never seems to talk to God or to anyone else. He congratulates himself. He plans for himself, and all it gets him is loneliness.
I often hear people whose lives are comfortable say how “blessed” they are without a thought about the fact that what they have is not a “blessing,” it is an obligation. With every, so called, blessing, comes a duty. This man failed to realize that making him a fool thinking it was all his. “I earned it” is the way he thinks. “I deserve it.” That’s a fool talking. We are all in danger of being fools if we fail to realize that there is a duty that comes with every blessing. What we deserve is an opportunity to do something for the glory of God with what we have while we can.
How we use our money and our time is a clue to our identity. One look at a check book or a calendar says a lot. Defining ourselves by a salary, material possessions, or by accomplishments is really sad. I have sat through more eulogies than any of you could ever count listening to survivors stand up and memorialize the deceased by how they played golf or bridge, or traveled, and I would think to myself: “Really? Is that the sum of life?” We don’t build bigger barns anymore, but we do build bigger homes, drive bigger cars, have bigger TV screens. Those of us trying live our lives as a people chosen by God, Baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit must choose a different set of values. Instead of getting, we think of giving. Our privilege is serving. Instead of avenging, we think of forgiving. Grateful for the life and the time we have in this life, we treasure friends with whom we can share always remembering that love is the greatest treasure. The man in this Gospel had no friends.
It is possible to spend less and enjoy more and to live simply so that other might simply live rejecting greed in order to grow right in God. The fool of this Gospel discovered too late that material wealth is not a permanent possession. He was really very poor and had nothing he could really call his own. When we are at the end of this life, all we ought to count on is what we have become.