The gifts of parents, our senses, water, food, and so many other basics are given to us before we are even born. They are available to us even before we are aware of our need for them. All are an indispensable part of our world and we sometimes assume their presence. We do not always live with a spirit of gratitude for all that is shared with us as pure gift. We do not always share in return. Sometimes we just take what has been given us, claim ownership, and build bigger barns like the landowner in the parable Jesus tells in this Sunday’s Gospel.
Unlike the antagonist in the Gospel though, we are not many of us landowners. The land the vast majority of us own is, at most, the small plot we call home. Even that we do not all own. Many of us still owe on the mortgage or we rent. Given our own state of need however we are often quite generous. We who have little are always shown to be much more generous than those who have so much more. Jesus, a poor man himself, understood the trap of possessions, “Take care to guard against all greed.” Those who do not guard against greed keep building bigger barns and more of them. We who are not greedy find ourselves squeezed out – of even making a living. What are we to do? We can react angrily against the rich and the landowners but such energy alone is futile. More energizing for us is to keep on sharing as we always have. We can call greed what it is, capitalism, no matter the excuses given by its fans or the interlocking international systems rationalizing it. We can help change capitalism’s greed. We can shop at the farmers market, join or start co-op’s, shift our media sources, adopt wholistic health practices, precycle & recycle, use alternative energy, curtail credit, write letters to the editor, participate in community economics and democracy, live simply, and continue to invite those who are greedy to conversion. Most especially, we can say ‘Thank You’ for all the gifts that make up our lives.
Those whose greed manipulates such things as finances and politics would like to reduce Jesus to the private or individual realm only: e.g. Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior. Jesus is not so small a gift as to be wrapped in such a trinket box. He knew the workings of the capitalist world, then and now. He knew the discipleship of giftedness and sharing needed to transform the capitalist world. Are we living its communal richness?
Prayer: Creator, all that is comes from you and I am grateful.
Question: How am I sharing my gifts?
August 4, 2013 Gospel Luke 12:13-21 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time