TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
18 September 2016
Homily
Several years ago I went to visit a former student who has three children.
I knew that the mother and father in this household try very hard to eat healthy.
I wanted to bring some treat for the children but was in a quandary-what would be healthy?
And, still be a treat.
I settled on just one bag of chocolate covered cherries.
It was a compromise–the insides, the cherries would be healthy, the chocolate not so much.
I gave the chocolate covered cherries to their oldest a 4 year old.
I told him he’d have to share with his younger sister. He promised he would.
However, his mother immediately confiscated the cherries saying:
“Honey, I have a good idea. We’re going to save these cherries until after lunch.
Isn’t that a better idea than eating them now?”
The four year old broke out in huge tears. Huge tears.
Through his crying he said, “No, that’s not a better idea, at all.”
When I left them that day, the little 4 year old followed me to the front of the house.
After his parents had said goodbye to me at the door and gone to the back of the house,
he watched me through the open window.
When he was sure his parents were out of ear shot he yelled out to me:
“You could come back tomorrow…and, and bring us some Popsicles”
Pretty cagey for a 4 year old.
It appears in the gospel that Jesus praises the crafty steward.
What Jesus really acknowledges is that most of us are pretty good at getting what we want.
Our desires come pretty naturally to us,
and more often than not we find a way to get what’s important to us–even at an early age.
So, if we’re good at getting what we want, that raises the question: “What do I really want?”
It’s a different question from, “What is true wealth?”
The implication is that we don’t go after true wealth.
We who are pretty cagey about getting what we want seem unable to discern the truly desirable.
In the gospel Jesus suggests that sooner or later in life we have to choose a fundamental path–
As we mature we’re supposed to learn what is good, what is true wealth, and what is not.
Is that what your life looks like?
Mine doesn’t.
I think one of the most important things we do is come here each weekend to confirm our need
for the Lord’s help and the help of this community in focusing aright on what is true wealth.
Just so you know, the next day I returned with a big box of popsicles for those children.