August 3

  [media presentation below]

GospelThink

Sunday, August 3, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

LUKE 12:13-21

How Much I Have

Prayerthoughts

a. Do I find myself complaining too much about others when other people hear what I am saying? Perhaps I should take the time to say a prayer for those who I have complained about.

b. Do I keep turning to the Lord about the problems that I am having with other people, asking the Lord to continue to give them the grace to do the best they can?

c. Do I make judgments about other people’s money, and think or say something about it. Perhaps this is a time to say a prayer for them.

d. The Lord asks me to look at the “greed” that I have, the desire to have more. Is this something I should consider more?

e. The Lord often speaks of too many possessions. Have I too many possessions right now, and could I give some of them away to an organization that takes care of such things?

f. The Lord talks about life and how we often define life with how much I have. How do I look at “life” right now?

g. In Jesus' mind, who was "rich in what matters to God"? In my life right now, what does it mean for me to be “rich” in what matters to God”?

h. My prayerthoughts…

Today I will answer letter f.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

WHAT IS ABOVE AND WHAT IS ON EARTH

+ The second reading gives us an interesting distinction: the difference between “what is above” and “what is on earth”

- it is interesting to study life with that distinction

- take, for example, the specific topic of the Gospel, that is “money or wealth”

+ Money for a person tied into “what is above” is nothing more than barter, a way for people to exchange things to obtain that which they need

- money or wealth for a person tied into “what is on earth” often allows money to assume a life of its own

- as Jesus says, such a person will store up treasure for themselves

- and when that happens, most often such a person will lose sight of “what is above”

- which is the real problem connected with wealth and the seeking of wealth

+ And so, the liturgy gives us a straight-forward challenge today:

- where have we placed material goods, money, wealth in our lives?

- are we allowing money, profits, material things to overshadow the Christian values in our lives

- have we let our love for material things affect the “things above” in the way we live

- this does not in any way deny the importance of money as a means to exist

- it is very much part of our lives to make money, to invest money, even to try to make more money

- the Gospel doesn’t deny this; what the Gospel does is make us question where we have placed the importance of money

+ There was a song a number of years ago by Randy Travis called “The Hole”

- the story was this:

- a man set out to dig himself a mine which would produce diamonds and gold

- and he found it, but he wanted more, and so he dug deeper

- and he finds himself deep in the hole and he can’t get out

- along comes a man who wants to help him out

- he throws him down what the song calls a “lifeline”

- but the person in the song ignores it, and keeps right on digging because he wants more

- and now he can’t get out of his hole--forever

- that is what love of money tends to do

- it produces a hole that we can’t dig out of

+ This is not an easy topic to consider

- because it touches something which is quite personal to all of us

- namely, in what areas we spend our money or do not spend our money

- take, for example, giving to a charity or the Church

- why should we do that?

- the person tied into “what is on earth” will say that we need to support the charity or Church or school

- that may indeed be a side-effect of the money we give

- but the reason we give something of what we earn to a charity or Church is the thinking of the person tied into “what is above”, namely,

- our belief that God has created us and given us life

- and so we have to give back to God in some way

- it is the whole concept of stewardship that we speak of often—giving of our time, talent and treasure

- it is the natural outcome of our belief in God—we must give back to the God who has given to us

+ When money becomes an end in itself

- we have not only lost the concept of what money should be,

- but it tends to dominate everything we do

- in the end, perhaps we should just listen very closely to what Jesus said to us today:

Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.

- what life does consist of is how well we live while using the money we make.