The Foolish Rich Man Fr. Lawrence Margitich

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ. There's

a book called The Sunflower. And in it, one of

the author, St. John of Tobolsk, who is the related,

the great grand... Father, I can't remember exactly,

of St. John of Shanghai in San Francisco. He

tells us that whatever we desire, that becomes

our self, our true essence. That becomes our

personality. Now, obviously, he's not talking

about such things as, after liturgy today, I

hope to have a cup of coffee. I'm not going to

become a caffeine addict. I'm not going to become

coffee. When my car breaks down, I hope to get

it fixed, or I hope to get a new car. It's more

like I desire that our former parishioner, Kathy

Dodges, Cousin Heidi recovers from COVID -19.

I desire that all of you stay well. I desire

that all of you experience the peace and love

of God. I desire good things. And then we orientate

our mind and our heart. When we desire an enemy

to suffer, someone we don't like to experience

something bad, then our attention is going towards

our passions. Today, we hear this parable, which

Jesus spoke to those, it says, well, it starts

off with this, with verse 11. It would be nice

if the lectionary started with the 13, but it

doesn't. It says this. One of the companies said,

when Jesus was speaking about life and about

forgiveness and about standing firm for the faith

no matter what would come before us, and he said

something about blaspheming against the Holy

Spirit. One of the companies said to a master,

Speak to my brother, please, that he would give

me my share of the inheritance. And Jesus said

to him, man, and this is ironic because, of course,

man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

And he said to them, take heed, be careful, and

beware of covetousness. For a person's life does

not consist in the abundance of the things which

he possesses. Well, what's covetousness? I had

to look it up. I think I know what it means,

but actually looking it up in the dictionary

is quite revealing. It means desiring something,

a lustful desire for something, even at the expense

of someone else. Even if you hurt someone else.

You've got to have that thing. So Jesus tells

a parable, no doubt spoken to the brother who

would not divide the inheritance and to the brother

who wanted the inheritance. To be careful. And

what does he say? He speaks about the ground

of a certain rich man. This rich man was successful.

That's good. That's a good part of the parable.

He says, I'm so successful, I need to store this

stuff. God has spoken to us, brothers and sisters,

through his word, Jesus Christ. The most profound

word he could give is on the cross in silence,

with his arms outstretched. It's the word of

love. It's the word of salvation. He speaks to

us in the gospel accounts. God speaks to us through

the lives of the saints and what they say. Through

the liturgical life, the church services, the

hymns, the gospels you hear. But still, we want

a word from God on high personally. How about

our rich man? God spoke to him on the last night

of his life. God spoke to him. Thou fool. What

a thing to hear when God speaks to you. Thou

fool. Why a fool? Well, the ground of a certain

rich man produced a good crop. This man is portrayed,

not as a sinner, but as an honest, hardworking

man, like any of us whose labor was blessed by

God with abundance. And truly, the abundance

of the rich man was a good thing. It was a blessing.

This is the catch to the parable. The earth is

the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And all

that dwell therein. It all belongs to God. It

is a blessing to work hard. It is a blessing

from God when that work leads to honest, yes,

success. It is a blessing to plan for your retirement

and for your children. It is not a sin to build

a bigger barn. This parable is not about getting

ready for death. It's not about building bigger

barns and being successful and working hard.

It's about covetousness. The parable... given

by our Savior doesn't criticize those things

that that man was successful for. But as the

parable progresses, we see that there's something

terribly wrong, seriously wrong with the man.

I, my, I will do this, I will do that. With the

increase of his wealth, there was no corresponding

increase in his heart. Maybe he was fearful he

would lose it all. His desire was focused. He

had no corresponding generosity. Covetousness

is what? It's the lustful desire to acquire something

even at the expense of someone else. In this

case, no acknowledgement of God's hand at all.

My crops, my this. my that, and ultimately he

says, the stupidest thing of all, which makes

him the fool, my soul. And I will do this, and

I will do that. Dear friends, let me encourage

you every morning so your mind doesn't go like

this foolish rich man. Let me encourage you to

say the prayer before work. Every day before

you start. And what does that prayer say? Oh,

Jesus Christ, thou hast said with thy most pure

lips that without me ye can do nothing. Oh, Lord,

we embrace these words. So it was at the height

of this man's prosperity that he died after he

was spoken to by God. You know, our prayers of

Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving's coming ought

to outnumber the prayers of request. As much

as we request, much more should we say thank

you to God. Prosperity is not a virtue. It is

a blessing. Wealth is not a virtue. It is a blessing

to be shared. The parable reminds us of the truth

that, as Dr. Martin Luther King said, money is

a good servant, but a bad master. Again, when

the coffin is lowered into the ground at the

cemetery, it's my duty as a priest to take a

shovel full of dirt. And say the words of the

psalm to remind us that we come from the same

place. God fashioned us out of the dust of the

earth. And we only exist because he breathed

into us the living spirit. And we've been redeemed.

We've been saved. We heard about a temple on

Friday and yesterday morning. And today we hear

about a barn. We're being built up. We are stones

of the temple of God. And what I say at the grave

with my shovel full of dirt as I put the dirt

on the coffin in that six -foot hole is the words

from the psalm. The earth is the Lord's and the

fullness thereof. It's all his. Everything we

have, dependent on Christ our Savior. Indeed,

our death and our resurrection. Right now, we're

dust and ashes. But in the age to come, we will

be immortal. So the saint tells us, again, whatever

we desire, that becomes our self, our true essence.

Do we desire? goodness, the peace and wisdom

of God. We have to examine our conscience daily

because we're in flux, we move around, we live

in troubled times, we're not sure what we want

one day or the next. I know for me that's true.

What do we deeply desire? To be with Christ,

to live in the light of his love, to be his apostle,

his disciple, his follower. his servant? If that's

it, then we have no fear of covetousness because

those things are eternal. But if we've got our

mind, our heart, our desire fixed on that which

is of this earth, and fear is one big thing,

those things aren't eternal and they will pass

away. Let's not be fools. Let's be servants of

God. Let's desire the one thing needful that

Jesus has about Mary. One thing needful. The

salvation of our soul. And God will take care

of the rest with our hard work and our cooperation

with him. So you see, this isn't a parable just

about morals and ethics. This is a parable about

the state of our soul before God. To him be glory.

and majesty now and ever to ages of ages. Amen.