Putting Our Heart and Treasure Where Our Faith and Prudence Are, 19th Sunday (C), August 7, 2022

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Saint Athanasius and St. John Church, Rumford, Maine
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C
August 7, 2022
Wis 18:6-9, Ps 33, Heb 11:1-2.8-19, Lk 12:32-48

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The text that guided the homily was: 

• “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own,” we prayed several times in today’s psalm. How blessed we are to know God, to know how loved we are by him, to know what he asks of us, to have the joy of helping others to know him. The second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews describes how blessed Abraham was to have been chosen by God and to respond with faith in him, the faith that led him to leave all he knew in his 70s and go to a place God would show him, the faith that helped him and his wife Sarah to trust in God that, even in their old age, they would have a son through whom Abraham would become the father of many nations, the faith that led him even to be willing to sacrifice that long-awaited son, confident that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom describes how blessed the Jews were, for having been chosen by God and having trusted in him to follow Moses’ instructions, celebrate the Passover and follow Moses through the Red Sea, into the desert, to the Promised Land. The Psalm itself describes how blessed all believers are, trusting in God to “deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine.” All of these readings are illustrations of what the Letter to the Hebrews says about faith, which it says is the “realization of what is hoped for and the evidence of things not seen,” faith is when we trust in God to know he will keep his promises and live in accordance with them. How blessed we are that God has chosen us to receive the gift of faith in him!
• In the Gospel today, Jesus makes plain that blessing and the way we are supposed to respond in faith. Everything begins with his extraordinary words, “Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom!” God the Father wants to give us something greater than he gave Abraham and the Jews. He wants to give us what they and their descendants longed for: to make us, in this world and forever, heirs of his Kingdom. The kingdom of God is ultimately God, who chooses us to be his own and makes us members of the royal family. Bestowing on us that gift, Jesus says, gives God the Father great joy. Jesus tells us, therefore, “Don’t be afraid any longer.” Sometimes we are afraid of God, we are afraid of displeasing him, we are afraid of our weaknesses and our capacity to choose against God, others and ourselves, we are afraid of the eternal consequences of our sinful choices. But Jesus encourages us not to be afraid, because his Father is delighted to give it all to us, shown in his sending his Son into the world to announce to us that the Kingdom is at hand, to teach us how to enter it, and, at great personal cost on Calvary, to make it possible for us to live with the King always.
• Jesus wants us to be as happy about receiving that gift of the kingdom as God the Father is to give it. That’s why he tells us that we need to let go of a desire to build our own material kingdom here on earth and use everything we have to obtain God’s kingdom. “Sell your belongings and give alms,” he says. “Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.” The way to seize and live in the the kingdom is through Christ-like charity, to use the money we have, the time we have, the goods we have, to lift others up. To love in this way is like transferring all we have to an account in the national bank of the kingdom that can never be taxed, where it will form an “inexhaustible treasure” that will never cease giving dividends. But Jesus wants us to respond with faith, trusting in his promises. He wants us to make a choice as to whether we are going to build up this heavenly treasure or, like the fool in last Sunday’s Gospel, seek to build up towers for our grain and wealth here on earth. “For where your treasure is,” Jesus tells us, “there also will your heart be.” Is our heart really in God, in his kingdom, in his promises and in his eternally secure treasure? Or is our heart in this fleeting world where eventually everything will pass away?
• If our heart is really in God, Jesus next tells us how to prove it. He tells us, “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.” If we’re living in the kingdom with the King, then we will be vigilant, alert, hungry for him, to light our lamps, like the five wise virgins Jesus described in a parable of the kingdom in St. Matthew’s Gospel, with lamps full of oil that burn always ready for his return, to gird our loins like the Jews in the desert, ready to run out to meet, embrace him and follow him where he leads. This is an expectant longing, like a child awaiting the return of a parent so that together they can to on an exciting adventure. A little later in the parable, Jesus drives home the point with two other images. One is of a security guard. “Be sure of this,” he says. “If the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.” Jesus wants us to be as alert for the joy of his arrival as a shepherd is alert, negatively, for the advance of wolves who want to attack his flock, or a father is to protect the family members and property in his house. The second image is of a steward. “Who, then,” Jesus states, “is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds already doing so.” If we’re awaiting him, Jesus wants us to be faithful, prudent and sharing what he has put at our disposal for the care of others. Notice the tense of the verbs Jesus employs: he will put in charge the one he finds already doing so He doesn’t want us to wait for an official ceremony appointing us; he wants us caring for others now. That’s what it means to be faithful. That’s what it means to be prudent. That’s what good stewardship means. He adds, in words that could apply to both images, “And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.” The Jewish night was broken down into four three-hour periods or “watches”: 6-9 pm, 9 to midnight, midnight to 3 am and 3-6 am. Jesus is communicating that if he finds us vigilant for him with the lamp of our heart burning, loins girt ready to greet him, and generously sharing his blessings, even at night when we and others are tired, even when most others aren’t even watching, how much more blessed we’ll be, because we’ll really be showing that charity is not some quid pro quo that we do only because we have to or are looking for a reward, but has become so much a part of our nature that we do it even when we’re exhausted. That’s what it means to live in the kingdom with faith.
• But that’s not the only response Jesus describes. There are those who don’t light their lamps. There are those who not only don’t gird their loins but take off their sandals. There are those who don’t distribute God’s blessings to others, but who, instead, thinking he’s long delayed, begin to “eat, drink and get drunk” and beat and abuse others. These are the unfaithful and imprudent stewards, these are the co-conspirators of the thieves, these are the ones who will be, Jesus says, with images I don’t think I need to interpret, “beaten severely” and assigned a place with the unfaithful. It’s a sad possibility of human freedom that people to whom God wants to give the kingdom can respond to his offer in such a way. It begins by placing our heart not in God and his promises, but in the pleasures of this life and things of the world. That leads to the corruption of our heart, such that it’s drowsy rather than vigilant, lazy rather than prompt, drunk rather than sober, evil rather than generous, stupid rather than smart, and unfaithful rather than true. Which set of adjectives and actions better would better describe us? Are we truly faithful and prudent stewards with lamps lit, loins girt and hearts really in God? What about in the second or third watch of the night? Are we already doing what he asks us, or do we wait until he or others seem to start paying attention?
• There are two objections that come up in the conversation. The first is from St. Peter, who queries, “Lord, is this parable for us or for everyone?” The question implies that he thought that the apostles might be exempt from what Jesus was teaching. Often we can listen to Jesus’ words and immediately apply them to others, rather than to ourselves. In priestly work, I’m often approached by people who ask me to preach or write an article about x or y, not because they think they need help in that particular area, but because they think a family member, or a friend, or someone at whom they’re wagging a finger needs to hear it. All of Sacred Scripture, however, applies to each of us. Perhaps some passages are more obviously relevant to some disciples rather than others, but none of us is exempt. Every parable is meant for us and for everyone, including what Jesus is saying to us in the Gospel today. Those of us who, like the apostles, may be more known for following Jesus, striving to live by his teachings and spreading love of him, rather than being exempt are called to be examples.
• That leads us to the second objection. We might think that even though we are not exempt, there are others who need to listen to Jesus’ words more carefully and follow them more assiduously. In terms of being faithful and prudent stewards, for example, we may think that it applies more toward bishops, priests, and religious, teachers, business owners and parents. In terms of being vigilant for the master’s arrival, we might think that it really focuses on those who are advanced in years or facing a life-threatening diagnosis. In terms of converting from placing their treasure in things that thieves can pilfer and moths can destroy, we might deem that those words pertain far more to those far richer than we are. But Jesus at the end of this Sunday’s passage says, not, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and little will be demanded of the person entrusted with little,” but rather, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” The point is that we’ve all been entrusted with lavish gifts, filled to overflowing. Others may have more than we think we have, but each of us has still been blessed with a great deal. Others may be spiritual billionaires, but we’re still millionaires. And God wants us to spend what he’s given us! Much is demanded of us. He wants us to use everything we have, not to eat, drink and get drunk, not for our own aggrandizement, but to make money bags containing an inexhaustible treasure that will not wear out. He has given us the resources, the time and the trust that we need. Rather than making excuses or thinking ourselves somehow exempt, he wants us to purify our hearts, light our lamps, gird our loins, and distribute his blessings.
• If we do so, Jesus promises an extraordinary reward. He guarantees he will “gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.” That is what he did for the apostles during the Last Supper as he fed them with his own body and blood, and that’s what he promises to do for us at the eternal wedding banquet. God the Father indeed is pleased to give us the kingdom and he shows it by giving us the King of Kings as our food even here on earth. Let us lift up our hearts to the Lord and place our treasure where our hearts are. How blessed we are to have been chosen by God and called to the Supper of the Lamb.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Gospel

Lk 12:32-48

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock,
for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
Sell your belongings and give alms.
Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out,
an inexhaustible treasure in heaven
that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.“Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants.
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming,
he would not have let his house be broken into.
You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,
the Son of Man will come.”

Then Peter said,
“Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”
And the Lord replied,
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward
whom the master will put in charge of his servants
to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.
Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant
in charge of all his property.
But if that servant says to himself,
‘My master is delayed in coming,’
and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants,
to eat and drink and get drunk,
then that servant’s master will come
on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
and will punish the servant severely
and assign him a place with the unfaithful.
That servant who knew his master’s will
but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will
shall be beaten severely;
and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will
but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating
shall be beaten only lightly.
Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,
and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

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