(18th Sunday of Ordinary Time) Luke 12:13-21 “Secure in the Lord”
We all long for a feeling of security. We might believe that the way to achieve security is to possess as much wealth as possible. But wealth can easily lead to a deadly sin called Greed. Many stories throughout history have warned of the dangers of desiring earthly possessions.
One famous tale is a story from Greek Mythology about a King named Midas. Greek mythology often speaks of the interaction of the God’s and humans. Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between how the Gods act and humans do. Midas was the King of Phrygia. One day a Greek God named Silenus wandered into Midas’s kingdom. Silenus loved to eat, drink, sing and sleep, in that order. He followed his normal pattern. In the end he passed out. King Midas then captured him. The God Dionysus was Silenus friend. King Midas returned Silenus to his friend Dionysus unharmed.
Dionysus was pleased to see his friend Silenus. He offered King Midas a reward for bringing Silenus home. Dionysus knew that Midas was greedy so he was not surprised when Midas asked for something that would make him the richest man in the world. Midas asked that everything that he would touch would turn to gold. Dionysus was like so many capricious Greek deities. The God’s knew humans often make poor choices. He granted the wish, but he was aware that Midas’ desire would lead to grief.
Midas went home. On the way home he turned tree branches into gold. He turned rocks into gold. He was ecstatic. When he entered his palace, the door handles even turned to Gold. Midas was so happy. He thought all his problems were solved, but then his daughter ran up to greet him. Before he could warn her, she touched him. She turned into a golden statue which never moved or spoke again. Midas tried to eat but the food turned to gold. And he tried to drink but the wine turned into a golden liquid that he was unable to stomach. Midas, according to the legend died because of dehydration. Or he died because he starved. Or he died of despair because of lack of human contact. One thing was the same in all these stories, Midas did not end up a happy man.
The story of King Midas has many similarities to the story Jesus tells in the Gospel of Luke. Both stories are about men who are totally consumed with their own need for affluence. Jesus quite often railed against greed. We remember so many stories in the Gospel about people who lose a sense of perspective because of their wealth. We can think of Jesus’ shorter parable in 10:25 of the Gospel of Mark. “It easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” We could also remember the story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus in Luke 12:16-20. The rich man ends up in eternal torment.
All this could point to the saying of Jesus that was passed down in our tradition which says that no man can serve two masters, for they will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Mammon is an Aramaic word that means money.
We can be struck by the language of the parable. The rich man never thought of anyone’s needs but his own. If we study all the parables of Jesus, we will not find another one that is so full of first-person pronouns. The writer uses words like “I, me, my and mine.” The rich man fails to see that everything that he has is a gift from God. Also, he fails to see that the wealth of this world passes away.
Nothing makes us more uncomfortable than examining our conscience about our possessions. Is avarice a feeling we often have? We are sold a myth in our society which is that the goal of our life should be to acquire things. We are bombarded by this message. Even the success of our educational system is measured by the amount of money people make after they graduate. Is it any wonder that hording is a psychological condition? One of our greatest phobias is to be left destitute. Because of this we acquire more and more.
Midas’ wealth led to loneliness and despair. Christian teaching says that the goal of life is to live in the Kingdom of Jesus where the major pronouns are us, we, and ours. The purist desire of all is to love God and love each other as we love ourselves.