Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle C

Eccl 1:2; 2:21-23
Col 3:1-5, 9-11
Lk 12:13-21

“Thus it will be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.” And what is it that matters to God? Today’s second reading answers the question that arises from today’s Gospel. What matters to God is that we become like him, that we “put on the new self, which is being renewed …in the image of its Creator.” What matters is that we do what he does, that is, that we give ourselves away in love. The opening prayers of today’s mass call God our “origin” and declare, “Our life is your gift.” What we have received as a gift, we must give as a gift, and through our God-like generosity, be the origin of life in others.

The dynamic traced in today’s Gospel, whereby we see fulfillment in earthly possessions and fail to see the lesson of the first reading that all earthly things pass away, is what contributes so powerfully to the Culture of Death. So many are tempted to take life, through abortion and euthanasia, precisely because they think the things of earth will slip away if they are generous. Yet what matters to God is that we are giving ourselves away at every moment, to the unborn as well as to the born, and to the weak as well as to the strong.

As the Gospel indicates, judgment can come at any moment; our opportunity to give life to others can cease at any moment. “To whom will all this piled-up wealth of yours go?” In the Culture of Life, we are secure at every moment in knowing that we simply seek to give ourselves away, that others may live.