Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Homily)
July 31, 2016 7:00 am · Father David Mbimadong
On this Sunday, the Scriptures draw our attention to the fact that we need to keep God constantly before our eyes. A life that is lived, no matter how well it is lived, without God is a hopeless life, a life full of emptiness, a futile life. So in the first reading, the author began by saying, "...vanity of vanities! All things are vanity". Futility of futility, all is futile, emptiness, nothing has value. He went ahead to say, when we live our lives trying to enjoy all the pleasures of this world, without God, at the end we leave the better path of the life. All that we have toiled for, for someone else who did not toil for it to come to enjoy.
Therefore if we live a life with God, it will have more meaning. The material world that we toil for, we will know how to handle it in such a way to bring us more joy, peace of mind and heart, and will make us friends of God and friends of our neighbors. In the Gospel, Jesus told the parable of the rich fool, to tell everyone of us that in so far as we work for material wealth and we do not have God, our life has no meaning, it has no purpose and it will come to a retched end. The rich fool does not exist anywhere, he is you and I here today. He represents every one of us who works hard but tries to throw God out of his or her life. Unfortunately this is what happens around us in our world. People turn their backs on God, and they think on their own they can go it and do everything very well for themselves so they can enjoy life to the full.. They work out of greed to amass wealth, at the end their life is full of emptiness. Because when they throw God out of their lives, they destroy the very foundation on which their life is built.