Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (4 August 2013)
‘Rags to Riches v Riches to Rags’
(Readings at Mass: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23; Colossians: 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21)
The hope of ‘rags to riches’ prompts the sale of lottery tickets. ‘Riches to rags’ has far fewer followers. Henrick Ibsen, the Norwegian playwright (1826-1906) found himself on this latter path but not by choice. His comfortable and financially secure childhood, through his father’s success in shipping, crashed quite dramatically. Ibsen later expressed his sense of loss and insecurity in the characters of his plays. His appraisal of financial wealth still rings true: ‘Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food but not appetite; medicine but not health; acquaintances but not friends; servants but not faithfulness; days of joy but not peace and happiness’ a quote from ‘The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life’ (Forbes1968). In the first reading for this Sunday, the 18th of the Year, from the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, the ancient author sets the scene for Ibsen’s thoughts centuries later.
Luke’s Gospel extract, ‘The Parable of the Rich Man’ (12:13-21) needs no explanation. The question is, are people who accept the parable’s truth willing to recalibrate their lives accordingly? The concept is easier to manage than the application! Down the centuries Christianity records men and women whose depth of personal faith led them to surrender all their material possessions.
Among them is St. Anthony the Abbot (AD 251-356). His parents died when he was in his late teens. He inherited not only their three hundred acres of land and the responsibility for a young sister, but a living faith in Jesus the Christ. One day in church, he heard Matthew 19:21 being read: ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ Jesus’ words reached the inner sanctum of Anthony’s heart. He chose to give to the poor all his property except what he and his sister needed to live on.
Later on, hearing Matthew 6:34, ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today,’ Anthony gave away what little remained, entrusted his sister to a convent, and moved out of the village to live a life of prayer, fasting, and manual labour. For him, listening to Jesus’ words wasn’t enough; he had to live the call those words expressed.
It is said two Greek philosophers, educated in languages and rhetoric, came to the Egyptian desert where Anthony lived. Anthony asked them why they had come to talk to such a foolish man as he. He had reason to say that: they saw before them a man who wore camel skin and who lived on bread and water. They were Greek, the world’s most admired civilisation, and Anthony, an Egyptian, was from a conquered nation. Anthony needed an interpreter to speak to them. He saw himself, in their eyes, as very foolish.
The Greek philosophers had heard stories of Anthony; how disciples came from all over to learn from him, how his intercession had brought about miraculous healings, how his words comforted the suffering. They assured him that they had come because he was a wise man.
Anthony guessed they wanted to hear his words and his arguments on the truth of Christianity and the value of asceticism. He refused to play their game and told them: ‘If you think me wise, become what I am, for we ought to imitate the good. Had I gone to you, I should have imitated you, but, since you have come to me, become what I am, for I am a Christian.’
Anthony pointed out to the Greek philosophers that their arguments would never be as strong as faith since all rhetoric, all arguments, no matter how complex, were created by human beings whereas it is God who imparts faith. If they wanted to live the greatest ideal, they should follow the path to faith in Jesus.
Jesus, if it may be said, is the authentic ‘riches to rags to riches’. In Jesus, God emptied Himself in order to re-embrace his lost creation and bring us to a new closeness of relationship as his adopted children. St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (2:5) sums it up: ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’
St. Anthony the Abbot, like each human being, received a personal call from God. Discerning the content of our personal vocation is a work-in-progress that begins afresh each day we wake and, with thanksgiving, prepare to listen, with our heart, to the Lord.