It is probably safe to say that most people learn the readings for the 18h Sunday of the Year too late in life.

As we consider our First Reading from the book of Ecclesiastes, it is clear that the author, who calls himself Qoheleth, is a bit of a pessimist. He argues that much of the work and the energy that we put into the business of living is all vanity. Indeed vanity is the overarching theme of his work. Part of the rich tradition of wisdom literature found in the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes reflects a more philosophical view of life than we find in much of the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. This sense of the vanity of all things presents the reality that we chase after much while attaining little of lasting value. In the end, he points out, the rich and poor, the famous and the obscure, the successful and the failure, are all equalized by death.
Our Gospel presents a scene where Jesus is challenged by a young man who asks him to solve a family financial dispute. This particular scenario sounds familiar to many of us. We know many families that are separated, and indeed sometimes at great odds, over the distribution of inherited money and property.

We might recognize ourselves to some extent in both of those readings. It is in his letter to the Colossians that St. Paul offers us a sense of the solution to the questions of life. Paul challenges us “to put to death” those parts of us that are focused solely on earthly or worldly gain. So much of what we seek for enjoyment in this life distracts us from what is important. As we grow older, and we begin to reflect more deeply on our own lives, we discover too late that many of the things that we sought are useless.

It has been said that we spend the first 40 years of our lives accumulating stuff and the rest of our lives trying to get rid of it. I would think as we look around us in the world today we probably spend 60 years of our lives to compiling stuff. After a while we find it so much of what we accumulated is no longer even valuable. Just anecdotally I recently had a conversation with the man who inherited his mother's collection of China dolls. She spent a great deal of money collecting these dolls which were very popular 30 or so years ago, and now he has to give them away because no one wants them anymore.

On a popular auction website they sell for less than $2 each. That which looked valuable in one generation is valueless to another. While we cannot deny the value of the pleasure that having them might have meant to the mother, they have now become more of a burden than a joy to her family.
As we think about our own lives and our relationship with stuff, we are challenged to put things into perspective.

We must, as St. Paul tells us, put to death the things of this life so that will we can more freely live; to live in a way that prepares us for eternal life. What we possess in this life, while it might make us feel good about ourselves, distracts us from what is important in life. Often the stuff of life causes more pain for us than it does pleasure. We should, then, take this opportunity to assess what it is that we value and learn to “let go” so that the Lord can fill us with his blessings and prepare us for eternal life.

Aug. 7 – Faith makes demands on believer and unbeliever alike

The question of faith is one that is deeply challenging in our own times. Those who have faith wonder about those who do not, and those who do not look risky with those who do. While this is not a modern phenomenon, it is becoming more and more prevalent in our own times. We wonder why faith, faith in God, faith in the incarnation and Paschal mystery Jesus Christ, faith in the work of the Holy Spirit, should be so divisive.

It seems that looking into the signs of the times there is a much uncertainty and unrest throughout the world. Certainly among some religious groups we see faith leading more towards destruction, division, and distrust, than it does to unity and peace. While at some point in his ministry Jesus did state that he came not to bring peace that was a reflection not of his intent but rather the effect of his preaching and his ministry. While there has always been some division between those who have faith and those who do not the question is what we do with that in our own time.

In the letter to the Hebrews the author emphasizes the importance of the power of faith. He sets up an historical outline demonstrating how the patriarchs and the great figures of the past by the virtue of faith were able to go above end that which would have been expected or anticipated by them. He mentions Abraham who handed on the faith and his inheritance to a son who was born to him when he was 90 years old. We can see throughout this letter the necessary nature of faith in our everyday lives.

The fact remains that no matter your worldview you have faith. Those who believe ardently in their religious convictions are convinced by the faith that they hold that their faith is true. It is also true that those who deny the existence of God must be of faith as well, as they must ardently hold to the worldview of denial.

Generally speaking throughout history when times were difficult people tended to place more of an emphasis on their religious faith. This is not to say that religious faith is inherently a crutch that people rely on but that it is through faith that people begin to make sense out of the difficulties of life. Our times are extremely uncertain. We are confused by the acts of violence that we are experiencing not only in terrorism and other parts of the world, but even more so in the civil unrest which raging on the streets of our own country. To some extent this challenge to our worldview should bring us to a deeper realization of the need to strengthen our faith and relationship with Jesus Christ, but in these days we seem less enthusiastic about doing so. The reasons for this are many. To some extent we are afraid of making international conflict a matter of religious war. Indeed the idea of religious war sounds to us terribly anachronistic and indeed it is. Nonetheless competing religious worldviews are governing much of the unrest in international politics.

It is probably true that more people are afraid today of the consequences personal and social of faith than at any other time in our historical memory. Faith has consequences. It challenges us to a deeper worldview. It challenges us to change our personal behavior as well as to begin to change the world around us. The increasing lack of faith that we are experiencing in our culture represents a reticence to impose our religious faith not only on the world around us but even to some extent on ourselves. What we are experiencing is not as much a lack of faith but a fear of faith and its consequences.

To some extent one might argue that that means that we recognize the value of faith probably more than most other times in history. Those who are struggling faith consider the impact of what that faith means in their lives. We ought to be challenged in a significant way by those who deny the importance of faith in their lives. We must grow deeper and more committed in our own experience of faith. To an extent they are challenging us to step up and to show the importance of faith on a day-to-day basis and how we live that in our lives.

Let us consider the hope that faith promises and the commitment it demands of us. Then we become capable of showing those who are afraid the joy and peace that comes with faith. “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.