Photo Caption: Sister Rachel Bergschneider, OSB, is a member of the Sisters of St. Benedict of St. Mary Monastery in Rock Island. She serves as pastoral associate at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Peoria Heights.

By: By Sister Rachel Bergschneider, OSB

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 4

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23; Psalm 90:3-4,5-6,12-13,14,17; Colossians 3:1-5,9-11; Luke 12:13-21

The Scriptures today focus on attitude. In the first reading, the author, Qoheleth, seems to have an attitude of the half-empty glass. Nothing is really worth the effort. Life is a problem. “Vanity of vanity. All is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) In the Gospel Jesus tells a story about another attitude, the attitude toward possessions. The issue is not really about the possessions as much as it is about an attitude toward them.

Last week was a wonderful week for the Catholic Church and the world to get a closer look at Pope Francis’ attitude about possessions. In this case Francis is displaying an attitude of sharing not physical possessions, but his very self. He is saying to the world once again that being among people is at the heart of our faith. Taking the risk of putting oneself out to include all people is surely a sign of the person, Jesus, whom he represents. It is filled with danger, but the alternative is a self-protection that does not embody the Gospel of Jesus.

The wisdom of today’s readings is at the heart of the spiritual journey. In life we find ourselves facing conflicting values and desires. What is really important in my life? What do I wake up thinking about? Is it my relationship with God or is it my possessions? What consumes my time and energy? On what do I make decisions? What is my attitude toward sharing? Whether we have $1,000 or $1 million, the question is the same.

FOOLING OURSELVES
The seduction of defining ourselves by our possessions creeps into our lives ever so quietly. You know the old story about the frog in the pan. Put the frog into a pan of hot water and it hops out immediately. Put the frog is a pan of cold water and turn up the heat slowly and the frog cooks without knowing it.

Jesus tells the same story in the Gospel today. The owner of the land was very logical in his decision to build more barns for a bountiful harvest. But he moved beyond the logical stewardship of his harvest to settling for a life a self-gratification. “You have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”

What was originally a practical and good idea turned into self-indulgence. He lost his heart because he focused on his own pleasure and well-being rather than using what he had to share with others.

How easy it is to fool ourselves when we have been given so much! It is so alluring to believe that we are the reason for our bounty, forgetting that we are stewards of all that God has so graciously given us. It is the nature of God to share. If we are made in God’s image, it is in our nature also to share. What gets in the way is the greed that St. Paul refers to in the second reading. We lose sight of who we are.

Perhaps the Responsorial Psalm says it the best: “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.”