Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Lift
up your hearts.” “We lift them up
to the Lord.” Do we? We say or chant this response at least
every Sunday when we gather for the celebration of Mass. But maybe it’s become so common that we
don’t even think about what we’re saying or chanting.
This
response should remind us of what we heard in the second reading today from St.
Paul: “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” It’s so easy to get caught up in
everything that is going on around us.
But, as Christians, our first priority is to be on God. That is why the priest, in the name of
Christ, reminds us right before the highest point of the Mass, to set our
hearts, that is, all of what we love, on Godly things, on the mysteries of the
death and resurrection into which we are about to enter. In our English translation we follow
the Latin, Sursum corda, “Lift up
your hearts.” In our second
reading we heard the word “think,” but even that word in Greek, froneite, can also mean feel. This is because the heart has always
been seen as the decision maker.
And while we pride ourselves on being reasonable, how many times have we
done stupid, reckless, or illogical things because we have loved something or
someone? Our heart, the part of us
that makes decisions, should be drawn upwards toward the Lord.
Because
heaven is what is most real. This
is part of the Christian paradox.
Just as the poor are blessed, the lowly are raised up, the last are
first, the greatest is the servant, so what is most real is life in Christ,
especially in its perfection in heaven, whereas the earth that we inhabit now
is passing away. What should
concern us most are not the things that we can sense, however good they may be,
but the things that only our souls can begin to grasp onto because they are
immaterial. That is why we are
reminded to lift up our hearts, to set our heart and soul and mind and strength
on God, rather than on the vanities of the world.
Because,
as our first reading and Gospel state, setting our hearts on the things of this
world leads to vanity and misfortune.
“Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and
yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property.” The man who is so rich in the things of
earth that he has to build another barn, dies before he can store away his
excess goods, and realizes that, because his heart was on being rich, he is actually
poor in what matters to God.
Now,
as we set our hearts on the things of God, does that mean we neglect our
earthly obligations to family, work, church, and the poor? Certainly not. When we make God our top priority, when
we set our heart on Him, we realize that He lets the sun shine on the good and
the bad, and allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. If God is so abundant in his love, how
can we, then, not take care of our family members, our employer or employee and
co-workers, our fellow members of the body of Christ, and those for whom God
Himself says He has a special love: the poor? Setting our hearts on God means that we place God first, not
that we neglect everything else.
In fact, because God has made us stewards of creation, neglect of our
responsibilities to other persons and the world is precisely not putting God
first. We cannot make God just
another part of our earthly concern, nor can we make the earth another
god. We set our hearts on God, and
so take care of each other to the best of our ability.
Because,
even as we set our hearts on God, we also learn to what extent we can assist
others. St. Paul writes about this
in his second letter to the Corinthians:
…not that others
should have relief while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality
your surplus at the present time should supply their needs, so that their
surplus may also supply your needs, that there may be equality. As it is written: “Whoever had much did
not have more, and whoever had little did not have less.”
Money is not bad. Jesus never condemns wealth in
itself. But when our hearts are
not set on God, then greed takes over, and the riches become a god, rather than
being an opportunity to be an icon of the generosity of God.
In many
ways we are a generous parish, on both sides of Burcham, and hopefully our
Mission Appeal speaker will see that.
We have been very blessed.
Do we only use our income when we experience some benefit, whether it is
getting back some service, or even just feeling good? Or are we generous even when we get nothing in return? “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.”
