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18th Sunday of Ordinary Time - 2010
Cycle C

First Reading
Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune. For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? All his days sorrow and grief are their occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity.

Second Reading
Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11

Brothers and sisters: If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.

Gospel Cycle C
Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me." He replied to him, "Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?" Then he said to the crowd, "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions." Then he told them a parable. "There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, 'What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?' And he said, 'This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!"' But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?' Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God."

My sisters and brothers in Christ,

The Book of Ecclesiastes, often called the Book of Qoheleth, is one of the wisdom books. It teaches us a lot of common sense and is very realistic about living daily life. Today we hear about vanity--that is, about the uselessness of so many things in this life, especially stress and preoccupation about what will happen to us or what we can acquire and what we can do in our ordinary life. Any stress or preoccupation is really useless--vanity in the sense of this reading.

The Gospel reading from Saint Luke also speaks about the futility of preoccupation or worry with money, inheritance or possessions. Of course, most of us don't want to live on the street or have nothing to eat, but this is not about that. It is an over concern with what we have right now, a constant preoccupation with having enough, when in reality we already have enough.

So often we can forget the Gospel teaching that stress and preoccupation and worry don't change reality. If we stop and think, we all realize that, at least in theory. But does such realization stop us from worrying, from stress, from preoccupations? Usually it does not. Instead we get caught up in this inner distress even though we can do nothing about it and it takes so much or even all of our energy.

We can always remember the serenity prayer and ask to change what we can and accept what we cannot change--but often we don't want to do that. It seems almost like a breach of trust if we give up worrying about what we cannot change!

The second reading today, from the Letter to the Colossians, can provide a path through this when it tells us: Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

All we need to do--and it sounds so easy--is to keep our attention on that which is above and not on the things of earth! Sure, we will say! Yet it is always the answer. We are invited to put everything in our life into the context of God's love for us and salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. It sounds pious but is just about as simple answer as could ever be given. Trust in the Lord and place all your concerns in His hands.

May we find the Lord this Sunday as He invites us into His presence. May we come to know how to place our lives in His hands. May we come to know that all is well and all shall be well because God is Lord. He loves us and calls us to respond to His love.