Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Most of us have at some time been drawn to the existential questions: “What am I doing here?” or “What is life about?” “What is the meaning of all this?” It is so easy to be caught up in the drone of everyday life: wake up, eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, go to work, come home from work, watch television, go to bed, and repeat. Life seems to drag at times or even seem pointless or meaningless as we do the same things over and over again.
This is what Qoheleth has in mind in our first reading from the book of Ecclesiastes. This is the same book that describes a “time for everything,” but here we see the very little profit that comes from so much hard work. There is a restlessness to be had in all the busy-ness and relentlessness of life. What is life about? What am I doing here? What’s the meaning of all this work? The gospel passage from Luke continues this theme, but in a different way. For here we have the familiar parable of the man who is so excited about his wealth of grain that he decides to build larger storage containers and to “eat, drink, and be merry.” He is not lamenting the little fruit of his toil, but rejoicing in his great success.
But both readings demonstrate life seen without God. In the first case, work seems meaningless. In the second story work leads to comfort and extravagance. For the man with the large grain crop, life is about physical enjoyment! In both readings, the people are caught up in things of the world; they cannot see beyond their immediate situation to their final situation. Neither is living for God and so both will have a paltry and incomplete experience of life. God calls us to “seek what is above,” to borrow the words of Paul in our second reading from his letter to the Colossians (Col 3:1). “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth” (Col 3:2). This is no easy task... for the work needs to be done, the bills need to be paid, the children need to be cared for, retirement needs to be saved for, and so on. We are rightly caught up in our material concerns as part of trying to be good stewards of our income. But if we let those concerns become an end in themselves, we will end up like Qoheleth or the man in the parable. Life will drone on for us in a meaningless grind of everyday tasks or we will rest secure with the simple goal “eat, drink, and be merry.”
The Christian life calls us to something more. It calls us to seek what is above and not let these material, worldly, earthly things become all that we think about. We will lose sight of God and others in our concern for our own comfort. In contrast, we have the opportunity to sanctify our work – to see everything that we do as an offering for God, something that is for our good and the good of others. It may seem like an enormous task to direct all of our thoughts, words, and actions to God, but it can be done. The traditional Catholic practice of making a morning offering comes from this understanding; upon first rising in the morning, we offer to God everything that we will do that day for his glory. Beginning our day in this way helps us to keep in mind throughout our day that we are not merely working for ourselves or for our family, but for the kingdom. We do not ultimately seek material comfort but eternal rest in heaven.
And the more we can turn our thoughts toward God and heaven, the more we will learn to use our world accordingly. We will know when to rest from our work and when to work harder. We will learn to be generous with our wealth and to be hospitable to our neighbor. We will worship God not just for one hour a week, but in every moment of our daily life. And life will have meaning for us.
- Maria Morrow