Becoming Rich Towards God Fr. Nicholas Carr

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.

As many of you are aware, I am employed as a

teacher for a public charter school, and as an

educator, part of my job is assessing student

work and giving grades. And students complete

work, and they earn a grade. and when they are

successful, they earn an A. But in order to do

well, they need to understand the assignment.

Sometimes a student will misunderstand the directions,

or perhaps they don't even read the directions,

and they just do the assignment. I remember there

was an assignment about... Well, World War II,

D -Day invasion of Omaha Beach, and the reply

the assignment turned in was about Omaha, Nebraska.

There can be mistakes that we make by not fully

understanding the assignment and the directions.

It is wise to know what the assignment is before

you complete it. It is wise... to follow the

directions properly. And today's gospel reading

from Luke has an example for us of a man who

didn't read the directions. He has worked hard

and he completed a lot of tasks that he set for

himself. And in his own eyes, he is a great success.

However, in God's eyes, he is a fool. The class

that he is taking is the class of life. The teacher

of this class is God. The assignment is to lead

a successful life. Jesus tells us the parable

of this man. The ground of a certain rich man

yielded plentifully. In other words, he was blessed

with much material success. He tore down his

small barns and built bigger storage capacity.

And he said to his soul, Soul, you have many

goods laid up for many years. Take your ease.

Eat, drink, and be merry. And to this man, he

had completed the assignment. He had succeeded

at life. But what did God say? But God said to

him, Fool, this night your soul will be required

of you, and then whose will those things be which

you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure

for himself and is not rich towards God. The

man of this particular parable did not fully

understand the directions of how to succeed in

life. He got rich, he worked hard, but he failed

in the true assignment to get rich towards God.

And this is our assignment too, in our life,

to get rich towards God. We are enrolled in that

same class, the class of life. And all of us

one day will come to the end of our life and

stand before God. however many years that will

be. And when we do, we shall turn in our assignment.

Here is my life, Lord. And the question will

be, how did we do in becoming rich towards God?

Archbishop Andre of Novo de Vivo speaks of what

makes for success in becoming rich towards God.

He says this. What determines it? The entire

attitude of our life. And this attitude is expressed

in our every step, in every action, in every

breath. And how strange. Attitude seems to be

something unimportant to people and somehow incidental.

But it is not in God's eyes. This attitude is

just what defines that great mystery which you

and I will meet then at the moment of departure

and that which will determine our lot forever.

What was the attitude of the rich man in today's

gospel? Listen to what he says. My fruits. And

my goods, not even mentioning God. And yet the

harvest came from God. And where was the love

for neighbor? There was none, not even a thought

for his neighbor. All care was for himself alone.

Rest, food, drink, merriment, only for himself.

Selfishness. was the attitude of his life. For

us as Orthodox Christians, may the attitude of

our hearts be different. May it be like what

reads in the Psalms. May we give praise to God

for his blessings to us. And as we now approach

this holiday of Thanksgiving, may that be the

attitude of our heart. Thanksgiving to God for

all that he has given us. The psalmist David

says, let the heavens rejoice, let the earth

be glad, let the sea roar and all its fullness,

let the field be joyful and all that is in it,

let then all the trees of the woods will rejoice

before the Lord, for he is coming, for he is

coming to judge the earth, he shall judge the

world with righteousness and the peoples with

his truth. So let us remember as we go through

our lives to have the right attitude of thanksgiving

in our hearts and to remember that the assignment

is not to get rich, but to become rich towards

God. And may the attitude of each of our hearts

be that of love for God and for his commandments.

Glory to Jesus Christ.