Archbishop of Sydney

His Eminence,
Cardinal George Pell
Cardinal Priest of the Title of S. Maria Domenica Mazzarello

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Home > Our Archbishop > Homilies 2001 > Article	Printable Version

Sancta Sophia College and St Mary's Cathedral

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 12: 13-21

By + George Pell
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
5 August 2001

"Vanity of vanities. All is vanity."

These lines are from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes; from the Wisdom Literature, with its dark pessimism about the human condition, written with elegance and cynicism.

Christians regard the whole Bible as inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Old Testament as well as the New, thereby having a unique authority as Revelation, as an imperfect insight into God's mind.

Jewish culture, however, was surrounded by mighty and sophisticated empires, much larger civilizations: for example, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians; and there are parallel stories to some Old Testament sections such as the creation story. From the beginning God has written straight in crooked lines. The wisdom literature is closest (of all the Old Testament) to the style and content of neighbouring pagan cultures, much influenced by Babylon and Egypt.

The incarnation of the Son of God, the ordinary life of Jesus of Nazareth, destroyed these pre-Christian notions that human life is a waste of time, while reinforcing Christian teaching about the difference between the virtues and vices, between higher values and dead ends.

This is easily said. Most of us believe it most of the time. A good question is, where is my life heading? Whatever our particular age might be, am I a giver or a taker? Am I generous or mean? Am I hopeful and enthusiastic or am I mean, greedy and therefore sour?

When we are hit with misfortune, we can be tempted to sadness and cynicism; lapse into depression, sometimes a physical and clinical condition which can be helped by medicine. We have the tragedy of youth suicide in Australia, one of the highest rates in the world. Faith is a wonderful alternative to despair.

Shakespeare has captured this black hole of the psyche very well:

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle;
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot; full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

I believe Shakespeare probably was a Catholic, but he knew the temptation to agnosticism and despair.

So we return to my questions from the start of Mass when we examine our consciences and repent of our sins. What are our true values? What do we value in our heart of hearts? Are we like the rich farmer whom God called a fool?

In the biblical sense a fool is not someone without common sense, but someone who acts as though there is no God; who in practice, and perhaps in theory, denies or ignores the existence of God and God's requirements for our believing and acting. Life is a gift from God, something we have on loan. How are we using it?

Few things in life are really important; once in a while we see this more clearly, for example, after a health scare, or a narrow escape; and in today's Gospel our Lord warns us against greediness, avarice.

Often in his time, the rabbis were called to adjudicate in disputed wills, which can produce such bitterness even today; or especially today when more people are materialist. Our Lord refused to fill this role and warned us that possessions are not life. As a young wife explained to me once, possessions cannot love you back; cannot return your love.

We should be building up treasures in heaven by our faith, prayer and good works. My mother used to tell us "there are no pockets in a shroud"; we cannot take money with us into the next life! As the Old Testament writer pointed out, often a rich person leaves money to the next generation, who are much better at spending money than making it!

A search for happiness, if it leads into materialism, is bound to be disappointing. And greed is something that can creep up on us slowly and silently. We can find that we reckon we need more and more so that we're secure. For those of us who do not have as much as others, do we feel free because of that? Are we able to perhaps laugh about it, or in fact do we genuinely resent it? Are we seriously tempted to envy?

Let us pray that we will take this challenging Gospel to heart and especially the first reading too; that we will use our regular attendance at Eucharist and our regular prayer to examine our priorities in life. Let us pray that we will be building up treasures for ourselves in the next life.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.