NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR ; Luke 12:32-48

Sunday Scripture Reflections

with Frank Doyle SJ

NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19; Luke 12:32-48

OUR ATTITUDE TO MATERIAL THINGS is the subject of today's readings. It is about the things that we really regard important in our lives. They also suggest that what we ARE is of far greater importance than what we HAVE.

A property dispute

Where your treasure is, there will be your heart be also.

WE CONTINUE TODAY the theme of last Sunday's Mass (18th Sunday C). There we heard a parable Jesus told about a man who made a great deal of money and was very happy with himself. "My barns are full. Now I can sit back and enjoy the rest of my life." But his Lord said, "You fool! Tonight you will die and leave all your money and property behind. Someone else will enjoy all the fruits of your hard work."

What is really mine?

And, when that man died and went before his God, what had he to offer? All that stuff in his barns? No, all that had to be left behind for others. When my turn comes to face my God and he asks me what I have and I respond: "Well, during my lifetime I managed to deposit quite sizeable sums of money in the bank", how do you think God will answer? Will he be particularly impressed? He may ask further, "But what have you brought with you?"

Readiness is all

So today's Gospel passage is a further reminder that we must not be like that man in last week's Gospel. It tells us, on the contrary, to be truly ready, implying that that man, in spite of all his efforts to build up his financial and material security, was in fact far from ready.

First of all, he pictured a long and bright future before him. Secondly, he regarded the material wealth he had garnered for himself as the sign and the reward of a "successful" life. He also believed that all he possessed belonged exclusively to him. There are an awful lot of people who seem to think the same way and we may be among them.

Readiness is all

Jesus tells us today to be ready, to be ready when the Master comes. For all our care and precautions, there is absolutely no way we can know when or how the Master will come to call us to himself. Jesus says it will be like a thief in the middle of the night. We have probably all experienced having had something stolen from our house, our car, or even our person. In most cases, if we had known in advance, we could easily have thwarted the thief. Sometimes the theft was simply due to our not having taken the simplest of precautions but, after the theft had taken place, it was too late.

More important than property

Jesus is warning us today about something much more important than the property we own, namely, the quality of our lives. Apparently, some people give top priority to the property they own. One can walk along roads in more affluent areas of a city where many of the houses can hardly be seen. They are hidden behind high walls topped with massive iron spikes. There are closed circuit video cameras monitoring movements 24 hours a day. As far as is humanly possible, nothing will be stolen from those houses. They are prepared for every eventuality - or are they?

Are they, are we, really ready to meet the Master when he comes? It is no use telling the God, "Lord, I have oodles in the bank, I have a lovely house in one of the most trendy suburbs, there is a Mercedes for me and a BMW for my wife. My son is a prosperous surgeon in the States and my daughter a thriving lawyer in London..." Quite honestly, Jesus is not likely to be terribly impressed or interested in such a litany. The really important things have not yet been said.

A man with nothing - and everything!

Take a different example altogether. His name was John. He was a devout Catholic in China. Like thousands of others, he had remained true to his faith during the dark days of persecution in China and spent long years in prison purely and simply because of his belief in Jesus. Eventually he was allowed out to Hong Kong to live and work. His body was stooped from the years of ill treatment he had experienced. Then, one day while attending Mass at the shrine of St Francis Xavier in nearby Macau, he collapsed and died just after receiving communion. Anyone who knew John, a man of no wealth whatever, knew that he was ready. His whole life had been lived in the company of Jesus. Jesus was all he had; Jesus was all he wanted.

The friends of Jesus

Elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus makes this very plain. Those are his friends who have gone out of their way to share themselves and what they have (and not just their easily spared surplus) with the neediest of the needy - the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, those in prison... It is quite clearly only a sample list of those among us who are in need. Those who consistently make this their first priority in life are ready. They are no strangers to Jesus because they fully realise that "as often as you do it to the least of my brothers, you do it to me".

Abraham as a model

Our life, too, as the Second Reading suggests, is like that of Abraham. It is a journey into the unknown and no amount of precautions or insurance can take away all uncertainty. "By faith, Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants... He set out without knowing where he was going." We would love to have complete control and plans for our future life but it seldom works out like that. In fact, we, like Abraham, do not know where our life journey will lead us. We do know the final destination but we do not know how or when we will reach it.

A question of quality

The journey that the Scripture speaks about, of course, is not so much about travelling as about the style and quality and direction of our living. It includes every experience we will have and how we respond to each one. It will include the people we come face to face with - either by choice or by accident - and how we respond to them. We can see experiences and people as stepping stones to our own self-advancement, as many seem to do, or we can see them as opportunities to respond in truth and love and service to God entering our daily lives.

Life as a journey

Life is a pilgrimage. It keeps moving. Abraham and his family "lived in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God". We would like to have gilt-edged securities for ourselves but our Christian faith offers us another programme. A life lived in love and service for the Kingdom of God, for a city - a society of justice and peace - designed and built by God. It is in doing this that we amass real wealth not only for ourselves but for others as well. By living like this, we are ready, at any time, to meet our Lord and Saviour. And when we do meet him we will know that all along we had lived with him in those we loved and served during our pilgrimage.

2. C19 Discipleship as a Journey – Luke 12:32-48 – August 12, 2007

In the New Testament the word “disciple” appears only in the four Gospels and in the Acts, but it is there over 250 times. “Disciple” can refer to a student of a teacher, an apprentice, or a follower. Jesus understood it primarily in the last sense and invited people to follow him and repeatedly spoke of what it means to follow Him.

If faith is a journey, we must become involved in causes and processes that move in the direction of God’s will. In the Bible faith is not a possession, something we have and keep. Faith is an activity, a never-ending movement in response to an ever-seeking God. Faith is a journey. It is not an easy journey, and will take us through the wilderness and up the rugged mountain.

The more carefully we read the Bible the stronger is the impression that faith may not be as “user-friendly” as we would like. The Bible centers in what has been called “macro-stories,” and these stories are about journeys. First, there is the journey of an old couple, Abraham and Sarah, who have been given an unlikely promise. Second,

there is the journey known as the Exodus, where God’s people are led out of bondage toward a promised land. Third, there is the journey out of exile, the long journey back to Jerusalem. In the New Testament there is the same motif, and the journey story is discipleship. Discipleship is a journey with Jesus, and it is a journey of transformation.

Jesus and our culture will never make peace. The “what’s-in-it-for-me” approach to religion, the search for an effortless spirituality, and the desire for “quick-fix” faith will not find their answer in Jesus. In the New Testament it costs to follow Jesus. What it costs and the wait, however, are more than worth the joy of receiving the gift of God’s kingdom.

Psychologists have long claimed that a vital sign of maturity is the ability to delay gratification. Children in their natural immaturity will insist on having what they want immediately. Their desire is all-consuming and what they want they want it now or else! Mature adults should be able to take a longer look and live according to commitments we have made and goals we have set. We should learn to wait.

We are surrounded by an ocean of immaturity. Our consumer culture, with endless products and marketing genius, stimulates our desires and convinces us that we need what is being offered – instant and effortless consumption. We are even looking for a

“user-friendly” church that meets our needs – and does not use the word “sin”.

Maturity as far-sightedness: Jesus pointed his hearers to the kind of spiritual maturity that keeps its eyes on the prize. This maturity does not forfeit a worthy goal by selling out to what appears to be instant and effortless gratification, or to what is thought to be immediate security. In today’s passage Jesus says to his disciples, “Do not be afraid, little flock, because it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

The kingdom of God is the prize of Christian discipleship. It is the one prize worth seeking and it is something God wants us to have. There is a sense in which God’s kingdom is already within us, just as there is a sense in which the kingdom is happening among us. But the full realization of the kingdom of God is still a distant

horizon. For this reason Jesus says the disciples will need endurance, patience, and faith.

Juan Williams chronicled the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1965. His book’s title is from an old civil rights song: “Eyes on the Prize.” The line in the song is, “Keep your eyes on the prize, Hold on, Hold on!” The civil rights movement had many “drop-outs,” people without a vision to stay with the struggle until the goal was realized. Some could not keep their eyes on the prize and keep on.

“You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

3. C19 Be Vigilant – Luke 12: 32, 48 – August 12, 2007

The biggest regret is the life of "do-nothingness"

"When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted" Luke 12:48

"Many charges have been leveled against me by the Jews." With these words, St. Paul opens his hearing before King Agrippa. Paul has been imprisoned by the Jewish authorities who accuse him of stirring up sedition among their people by preaching the Risen Christ. Agrippa is a Jewish King, appointed by the Roman Emperor to reign over portions of Palestine and to be in charge of the Temple in Jerusalem. Paul argues his own defense with great eloquence. He traces his career beginning with his youth. He had been a loyal Jew, a Pharisee who practiced strict observance of Jewish Law, he tells the King. Faithful to Jewish Tradition, he had lived in hope of the Messiah's coming. When the early Christian Church began to organize, he loyally carried out the authority vested in him by the chief priests by persecuting Jewish converts to Christianity. "I once thought it my duty to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth in every way possible," he says (Acts 26:9). Paul continues, “so wild was my fury against them that I pursued them even to foreign countries.” Then Paul describes how he and his companions were thrown from their horses on their way to Damascus. A voice from heaven asked, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” I said, at that, "Who are you, sir?" And the Lord answered: "I am that Jesus whom you are persecuting. Get up now and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to designate you as my servant ... to open the eyes of those to whom I am sending you, to turn them from darkness to light"... Paul finished by saying, “King Agrippa, I could not disobey that heavenly mission.”

King Agrippa replied, "A little more, Paul, and you will make a Christian out of me" (Acts 26:28). In that reply is the tragedy in the lives of many of us. We are given great opportunities and we almost decide, but not quite. Most of us can remember times when we came close to doing something really wonderful - but not quite. We may regret some of the important decisions we have made. But our most painful regrets are reserved for the decisions we failed to make. The bitterest regret of all is the safe life closeted away in the dusk of mediocrity: the life of do-nothingness; the life of "almost, but not quite."

In today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus says to Peter, "That servant is fortunate whom the master finds busy when he returns ... When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted" (Lk.12:43,48). Much was given to Peter. In Jesus, he was privileged to catch mankind's clearest glimpse of a loving, caring, forgiving God. Much, therefore, was asked of Peter: his very life, in fact. Peter was asked to choose between the settled life of mediocrity and the daring life of servant-of-the-Lord. And the choice did not come easy. He was hard put to accept some of the things Jesus was saying. When threatened physically, he denied Jesus three times. For a time he was an "almost, but not quite" disciple. He doubted, he fudged, he complained, he "ran scared." But Jesus never gave up on him and, finally, Peter accepted the responsibility entrusted to him as a person who has been privileged to see the Light-of-the-World. Paul's decision arrived literally "on the spot," in the context of a single "mind-blowing" event. For Peter, the Light had dawned slowly. For Paul it came in one blinding flash.

Most of us share more directly in Peter's experience. The Light comes slowly. We vacillate, we hedge, we postpone. We live on the "almost, but not quite" level. We can't decide. Jesus will never give up on us, however.

A big-city school teacher brought a rabbit into class to show her small pupils, many of whom had never seen one. The children were delighted and asked many questions about the animal. Finally, one little boy asked, "Is it a boy rabbit or a girl rabbit?" The teacher was a bit flustered but finally confessed that she did not know. "We could vote on it," said one little girl.

The validity of some things simply is not open to the voting process. The truth does not depend on whether or not a majority agrees. Most people in these times seem anxious to hear what the public opinion polls are saying and this is fine if the results are not interpreted in a way that automatically identifies the "right" or "wrong" of an issue with the majority opinion. History tells us of many times when the majority has led a society over the abyss. The truth often is described in the minority report. We cannot automatically assume that because an issue has been voted on it has been settled.

Ernest Hemingway's book, "A Movable Feast," published posthumously, is a reminiscence of the author's early days in Paris as a young writer. In one place he says, “Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of little oranges over the flames and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know." So finally I would write one true sentence that I knew or had heard someone say. We too experience desperate moments when we want to do something creative with our lives but do not know where to begin. Like Hemingway, we can begin by uttering one true sentence. I can think of no better sentence to begin with than the one Jesus gives us in our Scripture Lesson today: MORE WILL BE ASKED OF A MAN TO WHOM MORE HAS BEEN ENTRUSTED!

Has the Light dawned on you sufficiently for you to understand that Jesus is of God? Can you hear Jesus offering you the new life of exciting, creative, adventurous, daring, loving service to all His sisters and brothers in this world? If you have experienced these things you have been given much. And because you have been privileged in these ways, much more is being asked of you.

"That servant is fortunate whom his master finds busy when he returns," Jesus tells us. If you will decide now against being an "almost, but not quite" Christian, you can get busy in the service of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

4. C 19 MASTER’S RETURN – Luke 12: 32-48 – August 12, 2007

Jesus was clearly challenging his disciples to believe in a world that was not yet. Jesus talked to his disciples about the future. The proof of their faith would be the manner of their living. They were to face it, not with fear, but with a spirit of expectancy. He said,

“It has pleased my Father to give you the kingdom.” This was what the future would bring. They could count on it and look forward to it. They were to start investing in it. He went on to say, “Sell what you have and give alms. Get purses for yourselves that do not wear out, a never-failing treasure with the Lord, which no thief comes near nor any moth destroys. Wherever your treasure lies, there your heart will be.”

In this present world, the primary thing is getting. Someone has expressed it in a catchy phrase: “Get all you can, and can all you get.” That is the way nearly everybody lives. In God’s kingdom the primary thing will be to give.

Faith is often regarded as having to do only with religion. It is supposed that the person who takes up religion must exercised faith. But the person who stays clear of religion has no need of faith. That is a mistaken concept. It might even be called absurd. The fact is that we all live by faith and no one can live without it. By faith a bride and groom get married and start their own home. By faith farmers plant their crops. By faith, merchants stock their shelves. By faith scientists go into their laboratories, hoping to find truth that is not yet known. By faith passengers board an airplane. By fait patients put their lives in the hands of a doctor. And by faith, parents undertake the rearing of a child.

Faith is not some strange category of life, belonging only to religion. It is a necessity of daily life. Every day of our lives, we act on reasonable but unproven probabilities. We hold convictions that cannot be verified. We take risks, the outcome of which cannot be known in advance. And we trust people whom we barely met. It is not simply the just who live by faith. It is all of us. Abraham Lincoln was primarily a religionist. He was a statesman. But he said to the American people: “Let us have faith that right makes might, and that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty.”

Life is an adventure – hence the need of Faith. Between birth and death, virtually everything we do is an adventure: going to school, making friends, choosing a career, and raring children.

No one can live by verifiable knowledge alone. Every category of life illustrates the necessity of faith. In science, the established body of facts and laws are but the launching pad for new adventures into te unknown. In personal characters are habits are basic. They give our lives stability. In business, research and development is the very lifeline of every enterprise.

The author of the Hebrews wrote: “Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see.” In every realm of life, people work and wait with confident assurance that their hopes will some day become realities. It is not a question of whether we shall live by faith. That we will do – all of us. Our only option is the kind of faith by which we shall live.

Recognizing that reality, Jesus chose to live by faith in God, and pointed his disciples in the same direction. This faith had a profound effect upon him and upon those with whom he shared it. One thing it gave them was hope. Most people believed that history was an endless cycle that kept repeating itself, over and over again. But Jesus believed God was taking the world somewhere – to an ultimate fulfillment. He called that fulfillment, “the kingdom.” With eyes of faith he looked to the future and saw a time when God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. This faith also gave them a sense of purpose and responsibility. Jesus thought of his life as an instruments in the hands of God, to be used for the accomplishment of his will. He taught his disciples to think of themselves in the same way. They were to live “like waiting their master’s return from a wedding.” It was an analogy that people of that day would understand.

It is clear what Jesus was telling his disciples. The world belongs to God. Some of us feel like we are alone, and the world is ours to do as we will. But we are only temporary caretakers. Ultimately, we are accountable to God for what we do with this world. To some that may seem like a threat. But properly viewed, it is an assurance. God is in it. He is actively involved.

If someone should ask me to prove that, my only answer would be that I cannot. It is my faith which I have learned from Christ. Faith is always and forever and adventure in living.