33rd Sunday Year A - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2008

Soviet Russia’s communist command economy broke down two decades ago.  The Western World’s capitalist free-market economy seems to be going into meltdown.  Communist China has tried to marry the two, and is making room in its communist economy for a degree of free-market.  Judging from the G20 Summit, it looks as though the leaders of the Western World might try something similar, and make room in their free-market system for a degree of regulation.  What dominates all four systems seems to be their desire to get bigger, to increase wealth, to produce more, to have more.  It makes some sense, in a mindset dominated by death, to make the most of life while you can: “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.”

But what if  … what if the death experience is like the birth experience?  Birth put a definitive end to life in the womb; but opened out to a much more wonderful life beyond birth, in the world of time and space that we know – the world of consciousness, and freedom, of change and growth.  What if death is like birth …?  Death makes a definitive end of life in the world of time and space that we know, but what if it opens up to a much more wonderful life beyond death – to an experience beyond anything we can imagine, of consciousness and relationship to the mystery of Being and Love, (that now we can do no more than simply believe in and hope for.)

Jesus assures us that such is the case.  What is more, he warns us that the gateway of death is such that we can’t bring with us what we have – our homes, our clothes, our possessions, our reputations.  We bring with us only who we have become.  

Those elements of life before death that continue on after death are essentially the truly human achievements of trust, of faith and hope, and of love.  Which means that what matters in this phase of life between birth and death is not what we have but who we are becoming.  And the process of who we are becoming is worked out as we relate across life to our world, to each other, and to the creating and sustaining mystery we call God.

Sadly, to spend our lives preoccupied with getting more can be at the expense of our becoming more.  The two aren’t inevitably exclusive, but they don’t marry happily.  Yet, it is risky to take seriously the process of becoming more.  Choosing to love, (particularly those who don’t reciprocate and who have no intention of reciprocating), and choosing to trust the often untrustworthy, are not only risky… they can sometimes be downright dangerous.  Jesus’ own life and death bear that out.

Today’s parable is a bit of a puzzle.  Scholars don’t agree on what it means.  It might be a somewhat cryptic appeal to take the risk.  Just as, in the world scene supposed in the parable, it was the slaves who aimed high and who took the risks who did well; and the one who opted simply for safety who fared badly.

So, in the bigger picture of life leading into eternity, it is those who share God’s vision of the Kingdom, and who follow the way of Jesus, who will experience the Kingdom – those who run the risk of challenging the prevailing wisdom, who resolutely choose to stand free from the pervasive addiction always to have the latest and the best; and, in the process, opt to be different …