18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
July 31, 2022
Fr. John C. Garrett


Jesus always tries to open our eyes. He does this because we need to see things as they really are. He wants us to judge everything by the light of eternity. Today’s readings illustrate that point.
In the first reading we have Qoheleth’s famous saying: “Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity!” What does he mean? That life is brief, and that if we put all our trust and effort in the things of this world they will leave us empty. This is not a rejection of creation: the world is good, and work is a portion of our participation in God’s creative goodness. However, we need to remember that this world is passing away, and that our final destination is heaven.
In the second reading, St Paul exhorts the Christians in Colossae to seek what is above. In other words, we are citizens of heaven, and it’s crucial to remember that fact. “Think of what is above,” he tells them, “not of what is on earth.” Again, that does NOT mean that we should ignore the good things of this world. Too much other-worldly focus could actually be a vice, if it led us to neglect our current duties. However, St Paul knows the human heart well, and he knows that most of us tend to forget about heaven in favor of more temporary plans.
Finally, in today’s gospel Christ makes the same point. He gives us the striking parable of a wealthy man who had a bountiful harvest. It’s important to remember that in Jesus’ time the land, produce, and livestock signified wealth. So this man was sitting pretty, so much so that he decides to tear down his old barns in order to build new ones for his vast wealth. In modern terms, he’s taking his investments to the most aggressive hedge fund he can find. Yet he forgets about eternity; he puts all his hope in his wealth and forgets that we can’t take it with us. And so he hears these sobering words: “You will die tonight, and to whom will all this wealth belong?” Jesus wants to encourage us to remember that our lives are brief, and that eternity is closer every day. He wants us to live with our eyes fixed on heaven, where we will see him face to face in joy everlasting. Christ wants us to live today in such a way that we’re ready for the eternal tomorrow of God.
On October 19th, 1944, a prominent Jewish psychiatrist named Viktor Frankl was transported to Auschwitz. Over the course of the next year his wife, his brother, and his mother all died in concentration camps. Frankl survived, and wrote a book about his experiences, entitled in English Man’s Search for Meaning. In it he describes the Nazis attempt to demoralize the prisoners. They tried to get them to focus on the hopelessness of their situation, and thereby lead them to despair. They would use tactics like withholding food, and then, when everyone was starving, throw bread in the middle of the prison yard and allow everyone out to get it. The Nazi expectation was that the adults would rip the bread away from starving children, and thus dehumanize themselves. However Frankl said that not everyone behaved as expected. Some chose to act nobly even though they knew they might die for it. From such observations, and from his own experiences, he coined his famous dictum “that someone who has a WHY to live, can endure almost any HOW.”
When we keep our eyes fixed on the eternal joy of heaven, we start to see the events of this world in their proper perspective.
One of Jesus’ favorite images to describe heaven is a wedding banquet, where his joy will be in us and our joy will be complete. We don’t have to wait to have a foretaste of that. Every Mass is a participation in the eternal joy of heaven. In the Mass, Christ renews his sacrifice on the Cross. He gave himself to us and for us on the Cross; he renews that same self-gift in every Mass. In the Mass we also receive the Eucharist, which unites us with Jesus in his Body and Blood, his Soul and his Divinity. We are already made sharers in heaven when we receive him. Finally, when we receive the Eucharist, Christ wants to unite us with each other. In heaven we will all experience a perfect communion of life and love with each other. The Eucharist initiates that unity even now, if we receive Christ with faith, hope and love. The Eucharist heals our love.
Let’s reflect on that in the silence of our own hearts.
Today, in the Mass, Jesus wants to prepare us for eternity by giving us an immersion in it.
As we prepare to receive him in the Eucharist, let’s ask him that we may receive him worthily and well, and that our thoughts and actions may bear witness to eternity.