When I look at the reading today, I am always fascinated, not so much by the parable, but by what precedes it. First, do not miss a commonly overlooked element of this gospel passage. Jesus says “No”.

How many times have you asked for something in prayer and when you did not receive it, you thought that God is not listening to your prayers? However, in fact, in this passage we learn that Jesus does say no to prayer. Further, don’t miss this. What does the man ask for? He asks for justice. He is not receiving his part of the inheritance and asks Jesus, which was common among religious leaders at the time, and Jesus says to let go of his claims of justice. He is owed this part of the inheritance, he is entitled to it and Jesus says to let it go. Why, because the short term gains will result in a long term loss. The loss of the money may lead to spiritual gain. The gain of the money, even though it is justly owed to him may lead to long term division and bitterness. Then he talks about how the world is not money. So not only does He say no, but He says no to a request for justice.

Let us look deeper at what is being said. Jesus is telling us to prioritize our life in light of the kingdom of God and not the kingdom of humanity. To see this principle at work we only have to look around us. This principle of preparing for your retirement, which is a wise thing to do in once sense, surrounds us. However, what Jesus is actually saying is to keep true priorities straight. It does not make any sense to be ready for retirement and not to be ready for the ultimate retirement which is the kingdom of Heaven. That means that you need to look at your priorities very differently than the world looks at them.

Here is the reason why.  Remember at your baptism you were called not just to enter a path to your eternal life, you entered the family of God where you received the call to act as an ambassador of that family in the worldly kingdom that is outside the family of God. This is the reality that Jesus rejects before He dies—those that embrace the kingdom that is not His kingdom. That is the kingdom of ambition and a self centered form of competition, the kingdom of getting ahead and getting the most now. However, the kingdom to which we are called is the Kingdom of trust in the Lord, that is the one that leads us to fullness of everything we were called to be.

The kingdom of the world has winners and losers. You have to choose what you want to be, and do everything you can in order to get it. You will make friends and enemies. You will grow at others’ expense. You will win some and you will lose some. In either case, you will take control and get what you want. However notice the focus is on you.

In the kingdom of the Heaven, you focus on what God wants and you receive what God sees will make you more in the image in which He created you. You also work as his agent for others to help them become more what they were created to be. Your Focus is on God.

In one vision you are the agent of your own humanization, which will be temporarily successful to some degree at best. In the other you let go of it all that you may be humanized by God himself and become fully human and fully alive. In the process, you become an agent of God’s love in leading others to be fully human and fully alive. However that may make you a complete failure in the world’s eyes.

You cannot be a bigger failure than finding yourself in prison. However, our faith was actually born in prison and it was there that the Apostles and many saints preached to the people who had lost the game of the world. Many saints spent time in prison.

St. Thomas More was a rich, rich man. He was a lawyer and often taught to his children that despite their riches they might have to suffer as the Lord has suffered on the cross. He had to give his life for his faith losing the friendship of the King. He was beheaded by King Henry VIII, despite his loyalty, for not giving up his Catholic faith. The king by the way, died a miserable tyrant.

Everyone one of these were looked upon by the world as failures. Yet, in the eyes of God they are great successes. Today is the day to ask what your priorities are those of the world or those of the kingdom of God. One can lead you to be king like Henry VIII, but you run the risk of dying a miserable tyrant. The other can lead you to be a failure in the eyes of the world like St. Thomas More, St. Maxillian Kolbe, St. Joseph Labbé, St. Francis of Assisi, (Do we see a pattern here) and so many more.
Which do you choose?

God bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr
Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, MA and is the editor of this blog.

Photo Credit:

Top and Middle http://www.bigstockphoto.com: Guyerwood and Judwick respectively

Bottom: Fr. Robert J Carr