Catechism Links
CCC 661, 1042-1050, 1821: hope for a new heaven and a new earth
CCC 2535-2540, 2547, 2728: the disorder of covetousness
CCC Cross Reference:
Col 3-4 1971; Col 3:1-3 655; Col 3:1 1002; Col 3:3 665, 1003, 1420, 2796; Col 3:4 1003, 2772; Col 3:5-8 1852; Col 3:5 2518; Col 3:10 2809
Lk 12:13-14 549
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Reading 1
Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill,
and yet to another who has not labored over it,
he must leave property.
This also is vanity and a great misfortune.
For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart
with which he has labored under the sun?
All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation;
even at night his mind is not at rest.
This also is vanity.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
R. (1) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading II
Col 3:1-5, 9-11
Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.
Gospel
Lk 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.”
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Ecclesiastes 1:2 - 2:23
Vanity of vanities, Qoheleth says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity! For so it is that a man who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This, too, is vanity and great injustice; for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun? What of all his laborious days, his cares of office, his restless nights? This, too, is vanity.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 89(90):3-6,12-14,17
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
You turn men back to dust
and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
You sweep men away like a dream,
like the grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
by evening it withers and fades.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Let the favour of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of our hands.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
Or
Psalm 94:1-2,6-9
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Second reading Colossians 3:1 – 11
Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.
That is why you must kill everything in you that belongs only to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god; and never tell each other lies. You have stripped off your old behavior with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its creator; and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised or the uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free man. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.
Gospel Luke 12:13 – 21
A man in the crowd said to him, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance’. ‘My friend,’ he replied-’who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs’.
Then he told them a parable: ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time”. But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?”. So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
From: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
All is Vanity
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[2] Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
[21][...]because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. [22] What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun? [23] For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.
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Commentary:
1:1-2. The book begins and ends with the same words: "Vanity of vanities…" (v. 2; cf. 12:8). The phrase sums up wonderfully well the central idea of the book and is the sacred author's assessment of the things of the world and the fruits of human endeavour, included among the latter being the acquisition of a superficial type of knowledge or wisdom that is clearly at odds with what we know from experience. The Hebrew root of the word translated as "vanity" means something like the "vapour", "air", and conveys the idea of something with no consistency to it, illusion, unreality. Some scholars link it to another root that means "fleeting", "evanescent", in the sense of something that man cannot grasp, and that is certainly an aspect of what the author is saying throughout the book. "Vanity of vanities" is the Hebrew form of the superlative, as in "Song of Songs", On the Preacher, Qoheleth, see the "Introduction", p. 257, above.
When reading this book it is useful to bear in mind that the author is a Jewish teacher, very familiar with the Law and the wisdom tradition of Israel, which, in reaction to the arrival in Judea of various currents of Greek thought, was asking itself very seriously about the validity of its own answers about the value of human actions and the rewards or punishments that applied to them; could it be that the hedonistic ideas (which took no account of God) being put forward by Greek philosophers in the squares and streets – could these have some validity? The Preacher takes issue with both traditional wisdom and the Greeks. With a great deal of common sense, he questions all these teachings (which were widely accepted) and concludes that they are approaching the subject in the wrong way. It is not that he is skeptical about the human mind's ability to know reality; what he objects to is the failure of seekers after wisdom to go to the root of the problem: "The book of Ecclesiastes explains that exactly things are made of, and shows and makes clear to us the vanity of many of the things of the world, so that we might come to understand that the passing things of this life are not worth hungering for, and that we should not devote our attention to useless things or fix our desires on any creating thing" (St. Basil, In principium Proverbiorum, 1).
2:21-23
Continuing with his argument, the Preacher lists some examples of how impossible it is to attain happiness by following the paths of mere human experience. Now he takes up anther matter, also to do with traditional wisdom: the idea that the prospect of descendants makes a man happy, because they will appreciate all the work he has done and will benefit from it (cf. Prov 10:7; Sir 44:9). Seemingly the wise man thinks that that gives meaning to what he does and he derives satisfaction from it (vv. 14a-h). But as the sacred writer sees it, this also is vanity: wise man and fool, "the one fate comes to all of them" (v. 14c). Therefore the thought of posterity is sheer vanity, for both wise man and fool will be forgotten (vv. 15-16). So, life seems, in fact, hateful and depres- sing (v. 20). Indeed, all striving after these things leads nowhere (vv. 22-23).
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From: Col 3:1-5, 9-11
Seek the Things That Are Above
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[1] If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Avoid Sin
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[2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. [4] When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. [5] Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
[9] Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices [10] and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. [11] Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
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Commentary:
1-4. The more ethical and exhortatory part of the letter begins at this point. It is a practical application of the teaching given in the earlier chapters, designed to suit the circumstances that have arisen in the Colossian church.
By His death and resurrection the Son of God frees us from the power of Satan and of death. "By Baptism men are grafted into the paschal mystery of Christ; they die with him, are buried with Him, and rise with Him" (Vatican II, "Sacrosanctum Concilium", 6). In other words, Christians have been raised to a new kind of life, a supernatural life, whereby they share, even while on earth, in the glorious life of the risen Jesus. This life is at present spiritual and hidden, but when our Lord comes again in glory, it will become manifest and glorious.
Two practical consequences flow from this teaching -- the need to seek the "things that are above", that is, the things of God; and the need to pass unnoticed in one's everyday work and ordinary life, yet to do everything with a supernatural purpose in mind.
As regards the first of these the Second Vatican Council has said: "In their pilgrimage to the Heavenly city Christians are to seek and relish the things that are above (cf. Colossians 3:1-2): this involves not a lesser, but a greater commitment to working with all men to build a world that is more human" ("Gaudium Et Spes", 57). Work, family relationships, social involvements -- every aspect of human affairs -- should be approached in a spirit of faith and done perfectly, out of love: "The true Christian, who acts according to this faith", St. Escriva comments, "always has his sights set on God. His outlook is supernatural. He works in this world of ours, which he loves passionately; he is involved in all its challenges, but all the while his eyes are fixed on Heaven" ("Friends of God", 206).
Ordinary life, everyday interests, the desire to be better and to serve others without seeking public recognition of one's merits -- all this makes for holiness if done for love of God. A simple life "hid with Christ in God" (verse 3) is so important that Jesus Himself chose to spend the greater part of His life on earth living like an ordinary person: He was the son of a tradesman. "As we meditate on these truths, we come to understand better the logic of God. We come to realize that the supernatural value of our life does not depend on accomplishing great undertakings suggested to us by our over-active imagination. Rather it is to be found in the faithful acceptance of God's will, in welcoming generously the opportunities for small, daily sacrifice" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 172).
This means that those who try to seek holiness by imitating Jesus in His hidden life will be people full of hope; they will be optimistic and happy people; and after their death they will share in the glory of the Lord: they will hear Jesus' praise, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your Master" (Matthew 25:21).
On the value of the hidden life, see the note on Luke 2:15.
5-17. The Christian, who in Baptism has risen with Christ, should not live for himself but for God. This means that every day he needs to put off his old nature and put on the new.
The "old nature", the "old man": one who lets himself be led by disorderly passions (cf. Rom 7:8), who lets his body do evil in the service of sin (v. 5; cf. Rom 6:12f). With the help of grace the old nature is being more and more broken down, while the new nature is constantly being renewed (cf. 2 Cor 6:16). Impurity and the other vices need to be uprooted so as to make room for goodness and its train of Christian virtues (vv. 12-13), especially charity (v. 14), which are features of the new nature.
Christ's disciple, who has been made a new person and who lives for the Lord, has a new and more perfect knowledge of God and of the world (v. 10). Thanks to this he see things from a more elevated viewpoint; he has a "supernatural insight". This enables him to love and understand everyone without distinction of race, nation or social status (v. 11), and to imitate Christ, who has given himself up for all. "The Only-begotten of the Eternal Father vouchsafed to become a son of man, that we might be made conformable to the image of the Son of God and be renewed according to the likeness of him who created us. Therefore let all those who glory in the name of Christians not only look upon our divine Savior as the most sublime and most perfect model of all virtues, but also, by the careful avoidance of sin and the unremitting practice of holiness, so reproduce in their conduct his teaching and life, that when the Lord appears they may be like to him in glory, seeing him as he is (cf. 1 Jn 3:2)" (Pius XII, "Mystici Corporis", 20).
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From: Luke 12:13-21
Parable of the Rich Fool
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[13] One of the multitude said to Him (Jesus), "Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me." [14] But He said to him, "Man, who made Me a judge or divider over you?" [15] And He said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." [16] And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; [17] and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' [18] And he said, 'I will do this: I will store all my grain and my goods. [19] And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.' [20] But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' [21] So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
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Commentary:
13. This man is only interested in his own problems; he sees in Jesus only a teacher with authority and prestige who can help sort out his case (cf. Deuteronomy 21:17). He is a good example of those who approach religious authorities not to seek advice on the way they should go in their spiritual life, but rather to get them to solve their material problems. Jesus vigorously rejects the man's request – not because He is insensitive to the injustice which may have been committed in this family, but because it is not part of His redemptive mission to intervene in matters of this kind. By His word and example the Master shows us that His work of salvation is not aimed at solving the many social and family problems that arise in human society; He has come to give us principles and moral standards which should inspire our actions in temporal affairs, but not to give us precise, technical solutions to problems which arise; to that end He has endowed us with intelligence and freedom.
15-21. After His statement in verse 15, Jesus tells the parable of the foolish rich man: what folly it is to put our trust in amassing material goods to ensure we have a comfortable life on earth, forgetting the goods of the spirit, which are what really ensure us -- through God's mercy -- of eternal life.
This is how St. Athanasius explained these words of our Lord: "A person who lives as if he were to die every day -- given that our life is uncertain by definition -- will not sin, for good fear extinguishes most of the disorder of our appetites; whereas he who thinks he has a long life ahead of him will easily let himself be dominated by pleasures" ("Adversus Antigonum").
19. This man's stupidity consisted in making material possession his only aim in life and his only insurance policy. It is lawful for a person to want to own what he needs for living, but if possession of material resources becomes an absolute, it spells the ultimate destruction of the individual and of society. "Increased possession is not the ultimate goal of nations nor of individuals. All growth is ambivalent. It is essential if man is to develop as a man, but in a way it imprisons man if he considers it the supreme good, and it restricts his vision. Then we see hearts harden and minds close, and men no longer gather together in friendship but out of self-interest, which soon leads to strife and disunity. The exclusive pursuit of possessions thus becomes an obstacle to individual fulfillment and to man's true greatness. Both for nations and for individual, avarice is the most evident form of underdevelopment" (Paul VI, "Populorum Progressio", 19).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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