26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 25 September
25th September 2022
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 25 September
A reflection on today's gospel reading by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"Material things are lawful and necessary because they enable us to live according to our station of life, to mitigate suffering, to advance the Kingdom of God, and to save our souls. It is the pursuit of wealth as an end instead of as a means to the above ends, which makes a man covetous.
"Covetousness is much more general in the world today than we suspect. It once was monopolised by the avaricious rich: now it is shared by the envious poor. Because a man has no money in his pockets is no proof that he is not covetous; he may be involuntarily poor with a passion for wealth far in excess of those who possess.
"Man becomes like that which he loves, and if he loves gold, he becomes like it – cold, hard, and yellow. The more he acquires, the more he suffers at surrendering even the least of it. The more the sinfully rich man gets, the more he believes he is needy. He is always poor in his own eyes. The sense of the spiritual thus becomes so deadened that its most precious treasures are bartered away for the trivial increases, as Judas sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver. As St Paul tells us: ‘The love of money is the root of all evil; in their desire for it some have strayed from the faith…’ The Providence of God becomes less and less a reality, and if it still retains value, it is reduced to a secondary role; God is trusted as long as we have a good bank account.
"To turn man’s heart away from perishable things to the eternal values of the soul, was one of the reasons for Our Lord’s visit to the earth. His teaching from the beginning was not only a warning against covetousness, but a plea for a greater trust in Providence.
"The man who unduly loves riches is a fallen man, because of a bad exchange; he might have had heaven through his generosity, and he has only the earth. He could have kept his soul, but he sold it for material things.
"When a man loves wealth inordinately, he and it grow together like a tree pushing itself in growth through the crevices of a rock. Death to such a man is a painful wrench, because of his close identification with the material. He has everything to live for, nothing to die for. As a result, he becomes at death the most destitute and despoiled beggar in the universe, for he has nothing he can take with him. He discovers too late that he did not belong to himself, but to things. Now discovers too late that by consecrating himself to filling his barns, he was never free to save the only thing he could carry with him to eternity: his soul.
"Where our treasure is, there is our heart also. If we have lived for God, then death is a liberation. Earth and its possessions are the cage which confines us, and death is the opening of its door, enabling our soul to wing its way to its Beloved for which alone it had lived, and for which it only waited to die."
(The Seven Capital Sins)
"All those in this world who are in the state of grace have within themselves the seed of glory. Those who are in the state of mortal sin, even though they deny God, have within themselves the seed of hell. Hell begins here; so does heaven; and neither ends here. Our Blessed Lord spoke fifteen times of hell. Eleven times He mentioned eternal fire. Thirty times in the New Testament eternal fire is mentioned. Our Blessed Lord said, ‘Fear ye not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him that can destroy both body and soul in hell.’
"Why shouldn’t God warn us? What good would another warning do? That was what the rich man asked. Remember in the parable of the rich man and the poor beggar Lazarus? The rich man asked someone to go back and tell his brothers how much he was suffering in hell. Suppose God had granted the request and sent Lazarus back to his five brothers and they recognised him. Do you think they would change? They probably would demand proof he had really lived, died, and visited the region of the departing soul. The point is judgement and hell are things of faith, not of sight. If the Risen Christ is no proof to the senses, then no one risen from the dead can be a convincing warning to us. If the Resurrection of Christ would not convince those who were witness, then resurrection of a dead man who came from hell will not."
(Your Life is Worth Living)
Prayer Against Covetousness and Greed
Father of Generosity, You have told us not to place our faith in wealth since the love of money is the foundation of all evil. You offer us every opportunity to be content in You because You promise to meet our needs. Teach us, I beseech You, to restrain our longing for material things. Give us the strength to overcome all greed and covetousness in our souls. Bless us, Lord, with the patience and serenity to believe Your promises and rejoice in Your provisions. Amen. 🙏💖💐