Homily, August 3, 2025
From The Pastor
What gives you a deep sense of purpose and meaning in your life? What is most important to you? What is it the gives you the greatest joy, happiness, or satisfaction that creates a deep sense of value or connectedness?
Our culture is not one that directs us to this kind of reflection. In fact, in our consumerist culture, media and advertising are a multibillion-dollar enterprise working tirelessly to tell us who we are, what we should buy, what will make us happier, smarter, live longer, become rich, and how to become the coolest most beautiful person the world has ever known. Yes, I did try to make this sound like an advertisement. How did I do? Did I make myself look smart? Do you like me? If I were for sale, would I be a good buy? Would you lay down good cash for more? Ugh. Getting worse than a bad commercial.
The first reading has never been a favorite of mine, but it does make an essential point about human existence. Without a meaningful purpose or a personal sense of identity in life, it is easy to live in the false world of vanity creating the illusion of happiness or perfection. On the one hand, what Qoheleth says cannot be denied. We labor through life for stability, security, and the pleasure of good things. We gather and use the things of the world for our good and the good of others. Inevitably, we all die. What is left over will go to someone else. If we are wise and make the effort to plan, our earthly belongings will go to people who will honor and respect our intentions.
On the other hand, life is greater than the value of our possessions, any status or reputation we may attain, or the ego inflation of our own making. As professed Christians, our deepest identity is in Christ. Christ is the goal, the meaning, and the purpose of our existence. This is revealed in the uniqueness of who we are expressed in the connectedness, bonding, and loving experience we have with others. Made in the image of God, the rhythms and manner of life we choose should reflect the nature and identity of Christ in us. Love animates life with meaning, energy, commitment, and creativity. Consider the millions of people who engaged in the activities of July 4th. Planning, packing, traveling to a cottage, concert, family in a faraway place or the guy next door. All add wonder and awe, joy and hope, connectedness, and belonging that make life hopeful and promising.
Why is the rich man so committed to save all he gained in his abundant harvest? Wouldn’t he be happier, more connected in love with others if he shared the abundance given him by God. It was God’s earth, water, and sun that produced the abundance, yet the man takes the credit as his own. If he saved it all for himself, it would spoil or rot before he could enjoy it all. What is gained by his hoarding it?
How do we get past the need to save, gather, and compete against others with what is more rightly and justly shared? A meaningful and happy life begins with an other-centered heart. This does not mean I cannot have and enjoy things that make me happy and rightfully satisfied. An empty well provides water for no one.
One of the great challenges of our time is to know the self in a consumer, competition-based culture. The constant impact of media, advertising, and digital entertainment demands we live on the surface of life, leaving little time for personal reflection or a disciplined response to the call of faith. People who commit themselves to something larger than themselves feel a greater call that leads to an inner satisfaction. There is less need for or motivation to gather and collect things to make life meaningful.
People with lives centered in love and connectedness with others are more likely to feel and express gratitude, they are happier, and less distracted by the drone of complaining. Gratitude defeats the need to compete for things, seek personal approval, or the lie that I must be perfect.
People who are not happy or rarely satisfied with life tend to need more, to gather, and compete with others. A meaningful and disciplined inner life centered in Christ is the path to greater peace. Prayer is therapeutic. It centers the self in God with hopeful trust. A person who prays from the heart feels heard and seen by God. These build hope that leads to an inner happiness that secures a sense of belonging and relationship with the Creator/Redeemer of all that is. This is not always perfect, but it is a journey grounded in love.
Notice Jesus does not take on the problem of the disgruntled brother. “Who has appointed me your judge or arbitrator? If you know yourself and you are at peace with who you are in God, you are less likely to take on the need to fix the problems of others. That is another way of gathering and collecting for the sake of approval, isn’t it? Be yourself in God who is happy to live and dwell in you. What could be better than that?
Father John Esper
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