The book of Ecclesiastes contains wisdom literature written in the ancient Jewish tradition. Our reading from Ecclesiastes today declares, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” The author sees our earthly pursuits and possessions as transitory and ultimately meaningless. Our earthly achievements and pleasures, when separated from our relationship with God, do not offer lasting satisfaction and fulfillment. This is our human condition and the cyclical nature of life, which inevitability ends in our earthly death. Thus, true meaning in life must be found in God, in the awe and wonder we are to have before God, and in the gifts and treasures found in God’s kingdom. Trying to grasp onto the things of the earth, and to find ultimate meaning in them, is like trying to chase the wind. The things of the earth cannot be pursued for their own sake. Elsewhere in Ecclesiastes, we are told that the key to life is to fear and respect God, to follow his commandments, and to find joy in the simple gifts that God provides us.
Our readings today challenge us to be in this world but not of this world; to have the material possessions we need to have a good life, but to not make them our main purpose in life; to possess our worldly riches, but not be possessed by them. The Lord challenges us to live up to this ideal of Christian discipleship, but in our human weaknesses, we know that living up to this ideal is not easy. We have a warning in the parable from Jesus in the foolish man he describes in the Gospel. He is so ensnared in his desire to collect good things for his earthly life that he forgets that at any moment he may have to leave this earth and all he possesses in it.
Priests in religious orders are bound to a vow of poverty. I am a Diocesan priest who is not bound to this vow, but nonetheless, I am called to live a life of Gospel simplicity as a priest. Thus, I am called to live in a way that reflects Gospel values, prioritizing my spiritual life and ministry over material possessions. This simplicity is to serve as a witness to the faithful and frees me as a priest to focus on serving the needs of my parish and my ministry. My life as a missionary before becoming a priest was good training for this Gospel simplicity. For the two years I served as a missionary in a soup kitchen in Winnipeg, Canada, I lived in an old boarding house in the inner city with other missionaries. My bedroom was in the attic of this big old house. I could barely stand in the center of the small room and had to be kneeling on the floor the rest of the time. My bed was a twin mattress on the floor. I had a small dresser in the room and nothing else would fit. But the two years serving there were two of the most joyful fulfilling years of my life. That experience showed me how to live simply and to put my focus on the values of the kingdom of God.
I want to bring up the topic of stewardship, since stewardship is very relevant to the themes in today’s readings. When our focus in life becomes our material possessions and the accumulation of earthly treasures, Paul advices us to think about what is above, what pertains to God’s kingdom, not about what is below. We must not forget that our eternal home is in God’s kingdom, and so the things we do on earth should be with that end in sight. We are to look to God with grateful hearts, since everything that we have received on this earth has been freely given to us by God.
It is indeed important for us to always have a sense of gratitude on our journey of faith. It is good for us to review our day and to think about the experiences we have had during the day for which we are grateful. Through simple acts of thanksgiving we can more fully live out a life of faith and a life of stewardship.
We are thankful for a lot of you, our parishioners, we give very generously to our parish. We are only able to do what we can as a parish based on the contributions we get. We are very thankful to have a parish hall that was inaugurated just three years ago, right before I became pastor here on July 1, 2022. We owe approximately $350,000 on the parish on the loan and are making payments each month to pay it off. That all exists because of our commitment and the financial discipline of our parish.
One thing that was mentioned at our finance council meetings was that although our attendance at Mass is up, our offertory has stayed about the same or is even a little lower. I want to emphasize to all of you the importance of giving to our parish. We are only able to provide services and programs based on our financial health and the support of our parishioners. We are thankful for the parishioners was a very committed to financially support our parish. All of us need to think about how we financially contribute to our parish, that this is a commitment we are called to make as a disciple of Christ. We have the precepts of the Church in Canon law, which address the need for Catholics to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation. The precepts also include the Catholic faithful as being obliged to contribute to the needs of the Church, including the needs of the parish, works of charity, the apostolate, and the support of the Church’s ministers. I think we should all think about how God is calling us to do this of our generosity and thanksgiving, not just the minimal amount possible. Our Gospel today definitely helps us think about our stewardship of the Church.
