18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23 Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 Luke 12:13-21
The Gospels are often referred to as the ‘Good News’. Not many of us would be fully in agreement that today’s Gospel Reading is good news. It is one of the very challenging gospel passages that we, as Christians, must accept and face up to. I can think of some other passages which fall into this category: “Love one another as I have loved you”; “Love your enemies”; “Pray for those who hate you”; the rich man, the camel and the eye of the needle; “If you do not take up your cross, you cannot be my disciple”.
Today’s Gospel Reading requires us to stop and consider how great is our commitment to our Christian faith and its place in the world. Our contemporary world would hardly even consider this message today or even understand it! This is a message calling for equality, egalitarianism and sharing. It is to be proclaimed in a dog-eat-dog world where one-up-man-ship and greed are the norm.
The message that Jesus came to proclaim is one of love and sharing and concern and support for all people. And, yes, He did say that it would be easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to Heaven!
From the moment of his election Pope Francis gave us a new awareness of just how far we have moved from the true Gospel message. He proclaimed the Gospel message with power and authority and effectiveness because he lived it with sincerity. I find it difficult to speak of poverty, or riches or security in the light of the Gospel because I am so caught up in material things, so reliant on worldly possessions and so fearful of not having enough for the future.
So often I have read the words of St Paul in today’s 2nd Reading –“You must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is … Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth“. And yet, I still hold on, convincing myself that that is just the ‘ideal’! Was Jesus rich or poor? He was rich, divinely rich. But He chose to be poor so as “To make us rich out of His poverty (2Cor 8:9). We may well ask ‘are we rich or poor’ and ‘what do we hold as our poverty or riches?
Saint Luke was probably from a well-to-do family (In his stories he uses far larger sums of money than Mark. He understands about investment banking and rates of interest) and yet, he is the one who records Jesus warning of the dangers of riches! We may well ask ‘are We rich or poor’ and ‘what is poverty or riches?
Yesterday, August 3rd was the Feast of St Peter Julian Eymard (1811-68), the apostle of the Blessed Sacrament. In a special way the Blessed Eucharist belongs to the poor but it makes us rich. When we contemplate the Eucharist we, who are comfortable and secure, can be reminded of those who are hungry and vulnerable. How can our Eucharistic celebration be authentic if we aren’t aware of that?
If Jesus had chosen anything but bread as a symbol of His presence it would be less challenging for us. Bread is essential! Ghandi once remarked that “to starving people the way that God dared to come was as Bread”. So, only the poor in spirit can celebrate the Eucharist with a totally free conscience. When we come to the table of the Eucharist, we are, indeed, hungry, poor and vulnerable. When we receive the Bread of life we become rich!