Deacon Mike Meyer / Sunday, July 31, 2022 / Categories: Blog, Homilies Getting Our Priorities Straight Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C A New York investment banker was vacationing near a quaint fishing village in New England when he came upon a fisherman unloading a few fish from his small boat. Complimenting the catch, the banker asked how long the man had been fishing. The fisherman responded, “Just a little while. I caught enough to support my family’s immediate needs, so I can go home now.” “What do you do with the rest of your time?” the banker asked. “I spend time with my family and friends and volunteer at the local food pantry. I have a full and busy life.” The banker shook his head. “I can help you make a lot more money,” he said. “You should spend more time fishing and sell your fish. With the proceeds, you can buy a bigger boat, and with the profits from the bigger boat, you could eventually have an entire fishing fleet in 15 to 20 years.” “And then what?” the fisherman asked. The banker laughed and said, “That’s the best part! When the time is right, you sell your company and make millions!” “Millions? “Then what would I do?” the fisherman wondered. The banker enthusiastically replied, “Then you could retire, move to a small coastal fishing town, fish a little, spend time with your family and friends, and volunteer at a local food pantry.” It seems like our investment banker needs to get his priorities straight. Today’s reading should help. The message of today’s readings is loud and clear: people whose priorities aren’t God’s priorities are fools. In our first reading, Qoheleth calls our earthly priorities “vanities,” using the Hebrew word hevel, which means “breath,” “vapor,” or “something utterly insubstantial.”[1] Jesus shares the same message in the parable of the rich man, warning the crowd to guard against the constant urge to acquire more stuff because it distracts us from acquiring the true riches of life, treasures in heaven. As Saint Paul tells us in our second reading, we have to “think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” Let’s face it, our readings paint a pretty accurate picture of modern life, where God isn’t so much denied as regarded with indifference, and our focus is on earthly concerns, vanities.[2] While Jesus speaks of the dangers of wealth and greed, our vain priorities take many forms—prestige, power, information, good looks, advanced degrees...? Just think about how much time, energy, and lost sleep we incur trying to obtain or maintain the very things that Qoheleth calls vanities, and then consider where it’s gotten us. Fighting over money or inheritances are the usual suspects behind broken family ties and soured relationships with friends. Climbing professional or social ladders often involves stepping on others on our way up. Valuing information as currency frequently leads to harmful gossip that leaves innocent people in its wake. And what’s the common denominator behind all of these abuses of earthly things? Ego—prioritizing ourselves and not God or our neighbor. Take a look at our Gospel. The rich man uses the words “I” or “my” ten times in this very short parable. It’s all about him. “He’s only concerned about ‘me’: my harvest, my barns, my grain.”[3] His self-absorption prioritizes things of this world ahead of God and completely disregards the needs of others. Yes, he’s careful and conservative. He’s not a crook, but he lives only for himself—he talks to himself, plans for himself, and even congratulates himself.[4] He never gives credit to God for the bountiful harvest and never acknowledges that this blessing should have some purpose other than satisfying his own desires. He has stored up his treasures on earth, not in heaven. And that’s why God, in the parable, calls him a fool. Everything we have is a gift from God that’s intended for a divine purpose. God’s purpose, God’s priority, is always love. Love, then, is the Christian mission, the Christian priority. You see, in the waters of baptism, we died to the old life of earthly things and rose again to a new life of eternal things—the life of Christ, a life of complete self-giving that is heaven’s great treasure. Jesus hoarded nothing. He gave everything, including his life, to offer humanity eternal life. Christians, then, are called to “view everything against the background of eternity and no longer live as if this world was all that mattered.”[5] We still use the things of this world, but in a new and better way: we “set giving above getting, serving above ruling, forgiving above avenging. The standard, the priority, for Christians will be God’s, not the world’s.”[6] And again, God’s priority is love. And guess what? Prioritizing love doesn’t preclude us from having nice things, assuming positions of authority, or even getting advanced degrees. The secret is how we use these earthly things. Do we hoard them away for our own benefit and self-aggrandizement, or do we offer them “to the greater glory of God?” Prioritizing love always puts others first, and putting others first multiplies our treasures in heaven while healing so many of the wounds God’s people bear today. Abject poverty, racism, sexism, xenophobia, disregarding the God-given dignity of every human life, all these woes are inflicted when we prioritize ourselves over the needs of others. If we want to address these life-draining problems, we need to get our priorities straight. We need to make God’s priorities our priorities. We need to love. Well, I must be a slow learner because do you know what I did after I finished writing my homily the other night? I bought a lottery ticket for the $1.2 billion Mega Millions drawing. O vanity of vanities! I keep assuring God that I’ll be generous with the money if I win, but I suspect that many a losing ticket is God’s way of preventing me from failing to keep that promise. I don’t need millions. I’d like it, mind you, but I don’t need it. I need to make God’s priorities my priorities. I need to love. Today’s readings offer a stark reminder that we never know when our time on earth will end and that our earthly treasures have no value in the Kingdom of Heaven. They remind us that now’s the time to get our priorities straight. Readings: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23; Psalm 90; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21 [1] Robert Alter, Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), 346. [2] Reginald Fuller and Daniel Westberg, Preaching the Lectionary: The Word of God for the Church Today, 3d ed. (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2006), 486-487. [3] Pablo T. Gadenz, The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018), 239. [4] Fred B. Craddock, Luke, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 163. [5] William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 171. [6] Ibid., 171-172. Cien Años de Amor/One Hundred Years of Love Fat, Dumb, and Unhappy Print 461 Please login or register to post comments.