MORE THAN MONEY IS GREED

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ecc 1: 2; 2: 21 – 23 / Ps 90 / Col 3: 1 – 5, 9 – 11 / Lk 12: 13 – 21

“Money, money, money, must be funny in a rich man’s world. Money, money, money, always sunny in a rich man’s world” says the famous song from Mamma Mia.

We have to admit it that we all need money. We need money to buy food. We need money to sustain our family. We all need money in order to survive in our world today. However, Pope Francis reminds us that “money destroys.” And true enough, we have seen families killing each other all because of money.

And this is what happened in our Gospel today. Someone from the crowd asked Jesus to be the arbiter in a family dispute regarding inheritance. If you notice, Jesus did not say yes to the request but, he expressed his opinion that money per se is not the problem. Rather, the problem lies in our attitude towards money, towards the things that we possess today. And Jesus explicitly named such attitude – greed.  

But what is greed? Jesus in our Gospel today answers the question with a parable.

There was a rich man who had much. Now, since his barns no longer can contain his harvest, he destroyed them and built bigger barns. Notice that the word “I” which refers to the self is mentioned six times in the parable. So, the story tells us that greed is about acquiring more in order to satisfy the self. We accumulate more so that we can satisfy our wants and desires in life. This is very prevalent in our society today. We want to have more money, more gadgets, more properties, and what is worst, some married people today want to have more husbands or more wives because “it’s more fun basta daghan” (it’s fun if there’s more).

That mentality or disposition to acquire in order to satisfy the self makes greed idolatrous. Because we acquire more for ourselves, then, we make ourselves “gods” who need to be satisfied.

My dear friends, the Book of Qoheleth in our First Reading today reminds us that everything is vanity; that everything will come to pass. Everything will come to an end. Walang forever sa pera! (There is no forever in money). And so, St. Paul in the Second Reading reminds us to “think of what is above not of what is below.” And that we must “put to death the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.”

Today, we are therefore invited to DETACH ourselves from our own selfish desires so that we can ATTACH ourselves to God, the only source of real joy. When we do this, we do not fear kung mahutdan ta, kay ATTACHED man ta sa Ginoo nga mohatag nato (we do not fear iof we ran out because we are attached to a God who provides for us). And when we have much from God to whom we are lovingly attached, we do not become greedy, because we are DETACHED from passing things.

Today is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. If you have seen the movie, Ignacio de Loyola, which is still showing on cinemas until today, you will see how attached Ignatius was to his being a soldier. Until one fine day, he was hit by a canon ball. Literally, he was detached from his powerful life, and such detachment led him to attach himself to the Lord who alone gave him real joy.

We are all familiar with the saying, “Charity begins at home.” Yes, it is true. But Thomas Fuller better puts it when he said, “charity begins at home, but should not end there.” If charity ends at home then it becomes prone to greed. And so, our experience of charity at home must spill over to others so that we can detach ourselves from money and material possessions and be able to attach ourselves from the source of every blessing, our Father in heaven. Amen.