Today's first reading comes from the OT 'wisdom stable'. That tradition consists of five books of similar style: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon. These writers were more philosophers than theologians, walking a very fine line between Judaism and paganism. These books consist of a series of fleeting images rather than a logically constructed argument. One of the many images he uses to illustrate the fickle fortunes of mankind is running water. For whatever difference in size may appear among the various rivers on earth. they all have this in common, that they come from a small source; that along their way their waves roll on by constantly falling; that they eventually lose their identities in the great ocean; there the Rhine, the Danube, the Shannon, even the Corrib are absorbed into watery anonymity. The same destiny awaits every human being, according to the wisdom literature.
So it is with mankind. Today's first reading appears to be a harsh tract indeed. It seems to pass a most pessimistic judgement on the value of human effort and creation itself. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, says the teacher. There is a saying here in Ireland that it takes three generations to accumulate a fortune and one to blow it! A fellow works hard all his life; his wealth is fritted away by the next generation because they had never experienced the pain involved in accumulating it in the first place. According to the teacher, wealth and work is mere vexation. In Waiting for Godot, Beckett draws his inspiration from two books of the old testament: the Book of Job and the Book of Ecclesiastes. One character comes on stage to find the other juggling and at play: He asks him: "What are you doing." He replies: "Passing the time". He replies: "But time would have passed anyway." The Book of Ecclesiastes can be approached at that level: a kind of philosophical play-acting, an exposure of the absurd side of life as experience by the human being.
In our gospel reading, we are given an insight into the attitude of Jesus to wealth and riches. In two of the gospels the parable takes the form of the rich young man. A man who is transparently good is denied access to the Kingdom, simply because he is too wealthy. If we were to take this story at face value, we could all give up on heaven. Heaven would be populated by an elite club of penniless wanderers. But the background to the story will show us that Jesus is trying to get across an entirely different message. In traditional Jewish morality wealth was a sign of God's favour. The books of the Old Testament are filled with promises of prosperity to those who follow God's law. The other side of the coin of course was that those who fell on hard times were seen by society as being punished by God for some misdeed or other.
It is against this background that Jesus proposes a new morality. He is asked to adjudicate between two brothers, one of whom felt he had been disinherited. But he responds: "Take care; be on your guard against all sorts of greed." In the context, this teaching amounts to nothing short of a moral revolution. Far from being evidence of God's favour, Jesus tells his followers, wealth can actually come between a man and his God. Those who store up treasure for themselves and neglect the things of the spirit are in trouble, Jesus tells his listeners. Salvation is a gift from God, not a reward handed out to those who do well materially in this life.
We become what we are devoted to. "Where your treasure is, there too will your heart be," Jesus tells us in another part of the gospel. Our true identity is revealed in the shape of those we admire. Just look through your newspapers any Sunday and you will get a good insight into the type of society we have created. Airheaded vulgarians are paraded across the pages for our admiration and, one must presume, emulation. Their only claim to fame is that they managed to shed any value system that might just have humanised them. They are both the victims and creators of a consumerist society. And a large section of our society has become devoted disciples of consumerism, driven by desires that will never be satisfied. The gospel asks us to look critically at our circumstances. If our identity is locked to our possessions, who are we when our possessions are taken form us? We are afraid that if we have nothing, we are nothing. Attachment to our possessions can soon lead to our being possessed by our attachments. The tail is then wagging the dog.
Jesus wants us to enjoy our inner independence, so that our sense of value and identity are not dependant on what we have. His disciples are identified by their relationship with him and their relationship with their neighbours. Jesus is not saying on the gospel that the material world is undesirable and bad. But he is saying that if confine our vision to the material only, if we place all our eggs in the materialistic basket, then the greatness and potential of our humanity has escaped us. We have hitched our wagon to a perishable star. But, if we open our minds and hearts to his vision for humanity, there we have an enduring treasure.
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