The Tricky Question of Wealth

by Fr Earl Allyson Valdez

A Brief Reflection on the Readings of the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23 | Psalm 90 | Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 | Luke 12:13-21

In principle, it should not be hard to understand the idea of poverty that the Church encourages as a virtue, which is distinct from the condition of poverty as a miserable and inhumane situation that must be avoided. To grow in knowing what is enough and important is one thing, while to raise oneself from living conditions in which we are deprived of the basic necessities is another. 

Art by Rembrandt, 1627

Unfortunately, we who are within the Church and those who perceive it from a distance sometimes forget that. There are those who mistakenly believe that the Church wanted to keep people poor so as to fill the coffers with hard-earned money that could have been used by the faithful to raise their living conditions. And while we preach humility and poverty, sometimes we end up becoming the ones who are associated more with the affluent and influential, and for personal and self-serving purposes. 

The readings for this Sunday allows us to further reflect our relationship with our material existence and our possessions. Our first reading comes as a shocker to us, one that wakes us up to the real state of things: all is vanity. If we see that the point of our lives would be to raise material wealth, then the book of Ecclesiastes already tells us: they will all pass, inasmuch as we also pass. Therefore, what is the point of accumulating wealth, of living more than necessary, if these will all pass? 

This first reading, however, serves only as an introduction to a bigger shocker in the gospel reading. The Lord echoes the introduction of Ecclesiastes when he gives his response: One’s life does not consist of possessions; and to press the point further, he then tells the parable of a rich fool. He has all that every human being wants to possess: having a grandiose excess of what one wants, and then only sitting back to enjoy. 

But what he lacked was a certain perspective that we all fail to realize: there will be a time that all of these things will be taken from us, and nothing will be left. In effect, the fruit of our labor will be lost before us, and we ourselves will also come to pass without taking all of these in our next life. And whether we believe in this next life or not, things remain the same. We take nothing of what we have here. Death and time both come as the great equalizer. 

Our Lord does not say - and never says - that one must choose to remain poor, if this poverty deprives us of living a human life. Neither does he say that it is wrong to live a life of abundance, especially when it allows us to become more human, especially if this aids for us to also raise others from poverty and suffering. 

But what he clearly says and practices is the proper use of what is given to us, namely, that in recognizing the passing of all these things, including our lives, we make the most out of them in the best possible way. This covers not only our material possessions, but also our talents and capabilities, our dreams and our hopes. How we make use of it, however, can only be determined by prayer and reflection, by proper distribution and treatment of our wealth, by proper assessment of what we need to keep in the present and the future. 

In other words, we accumulate, we use, we save, and we give not according to our own standards, but according to God’s will, who, after all, grants what we have according to our needs and capacities, and expects us to let them grow and be of benefit to all. And it is in this regard that we should reconsider, in a radical manner, our attitude toward wealth, whether in terms of material possessions, of capabilities, of influence, and of experience. There may be times in which we bring to reflection our attitudes toward having so much and too much that we refuse to give, toward the way we respond to our own poverty and that of others, toward the issues of justice and equality which we uphold, and toward our own lifestyles and individual choices. 

In the end, the final standard with which we measure would be that of Christ and the promise of a meaningful Kingdom in the here and now. Are we willing to let our own wealth grow for the sake only of itself, or for being able to give more? Could we also tighten our pockets not just in saving for our own future and that of our loved ones, but also to be able to help those who are in need? Are we willing to develop our talents not just to have a prosperous career, but also to be of greater service to others? Do we preach poverty and simplicity to be able to practice it, and use it as a means to understand the inhumane situations of poverty and injustice insomuch as we come up with our responses to it? 

These are just questions that would enable us to say and live out that what determines the way we live with our wealth is our faith. Today, we ask for that grace to exercise wisdom that comes from the Lord with regard to what we own and have as part of our lives. In this way, we live out the words of St. Paul in the second reading, namely that our lives are determined not by who or what we are, not by what we own, but only due to the Christ that lives in us and makes us see the true meaning of things: that in their passing, they are still valuable as our way to be more loving and generous. Amen.