18th Ordinary Sunday of the Year - Cycle C

Death and taxes

How often have we pinned our hopes on one future thing: ‘If only I could get that job...’, ‘If I could just get this operation....’, ‘If I could get myself a nice girlfriend...’. Everyone’s life has uncertainty and anxiety, and most of us look forward to having less of it, or none.

The farmer in the story is no stranger to worry - some things never change! But, wonderfully for him, there comes a day when he thinks his worrying days are over. The harvest is plentiful, so much so that he needs bigger barns to store it all in. And once the barns are built and filled - everything will be perfect! “My soul, take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time!” And heaven’s opinion of his contentment is that he is a fool.

It is the activity of fools to imagine that anything whatsoever in this world can give us security or peace. As they say, in this life the only sure things are ‘death and taxes.’ This gospel passage is not inviting us to make sacrifices, but to open our eyes to just how ramshackle and transitory the things of this world are. The more we delude ourselves into thinking everything will be all right as soon as this or that comes round, the less we focus on the only thing that is permanent, the only thing that gives peace.

Only the Lord is permanent and reliable, faith in him is the rock on which we can build securely.  Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever. (Heb 13:8). “In his will is our peace.”

If today then we make our faith the centre of our lives, not our plans, and if we decide that time spent in prayer is not wasted, we may find the security for our lives that we are longing for.

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