OT XVIII [C] Eccl 1:2; 2:21-23; Col 3:1-5, 9-11; Lk 12:13-21

Charles Dickens in his play “The Christmas Carol” gives the picture of a selfish man, Mr Scrooge, whose sole aim in life was acquiring as much wealth as possible at any cost. He considered Christmas celebrations as humbug, and hated charity. He weighed human relationship against material wealth.  He never bothered to care for his nephew or his employees. 

One night, he saw an unusual figure in his bed room. It was a ghost in chains. The ghost introduced himself as the ghost of his deceased partner Marley. He came to warn Mr Scrooge about the futility of the life that he was leading. He told him that some spirits would come to him and he should listen to their message, to avoid the fate that Marley was suffering. 

First came the ghost of the past. He took Mr Scrooge to his past. He was presented as a young man who did not heed to the voice of his parents; who abandoned the love of a beautiful maiden to amass wealth. The second ghost, the ghost of the present, took him to the church where Christmas celebrations were being held; and to the house of one of his employees. There he witnessed what others thought of him. Everyone hated him due to his over attachment to wealth. The third ghost took him to the future. He was taken to a house where a dead body lay unattended and unlamented by any one. He was curious to see the dead man. The ghost allowed him to see the corpse. Mr Scrooge was shocked, it was his own death scene. 

 Mr Scrooge learned a great lesson that his frantic chase for wealth was meaningless. It would only lead him to eternal misery.  This is the message of today’s readings. 

The author of the book of Ecclesiastes, from which the first reading is taken, was evidently a man of wealth and education. Like every Hebrew of his time he too shared the view that material prosperity was one of the chief signs of God’s blessing and approval. Yet he questioned the assumptions of his society. He declares the truth that “a man who labors wisely, skillfully and successfully, must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. So he asks himself, “What profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?”

 The man in the story of Jesus too is like this. He exhorted himself, “eat heartily, drink well, and enjoy yourself.” He gave no consideration to his end. But God said to him: “fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?  

We are all familiar with the famous eruption of Mt Vesuvius in ancient times, which buried the city of Pompeii in lava in a matter of minutes. The lava and ash came quickly and in huge quantities, preserving a snapshot of life in that ancient city, as if freezing a moment from the past. When archeologists uncovered the lava-caked city, they found entire families gathered around a meal - buried in lava before they even knew the volcano had erupted; they found beasts of burden standing in their stables; they also found some people who had seen or heard the eruption and were trying, in vain, to run away when the eruption caught up with them.

But according to some records, the very first human remains that the archeologists found were the skeletons of a man and a woman, preserved in their lava shell. When they broke through that shell, they found the skeletons' bony fingers clutching handfuls of gold coins.

The temptation to trust too much in money is an old one - as old as money itself. Today Jesus is encouraging us once again not to fall into it.

St Paul advises us, “Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth.” 

One very practical way to keep our thoughts on heavenly things and keep money in its place is to sponsor an evangelization project as a family. If the whole family is involved in saving and sacrificing in order to reach a goal of this kind, it constantly reminds everyone in the family that money is meant to be a means to a higher end, not an end itself. For example, a family could commit to save enough money each year to sponsor a missionary priest, or a child in an orphanage run by missionaries, or feeding orphans in an orphanage for one week. Find out early how much it would cost and collect that amount; or sponsor a seminarian during his years of formation, or a certain number of Masses for the souls in purgatory. Or anything like that you can do it directly that your incentive to help the disadvantaged or the church will keep growing.  Together, as a family, you decide your goal, and then make a plan on how you will be able to meet it. You make a poster with a chart on it, so you can track your progress during the year.

And at the end of the year, when you make your goal, you celebrate with a ceremony in which the money is given to its destination.

Another way to do it is to set a more challenging goal and join forces with another family or two in order to achieve it. It also contributes to family unity and growth in faith.

Jesus doesn't want us to spend our lives building barns that we will never use. He wants us to spend our lives building his everlasting kingdom in our hearts and in the world.

There is a wise saying in India: 

Rivers do not drink their water. Trees do not consume their fruits themselves. Clouds do not rain for them. Thus, the wealth of the noble men is to be used for others. 

May the Lord open our ears and minds to understand his words: What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul.