Blessed with What Truly Matters

Homily: Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Year C

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 | Psalm 90 | Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 | Luke 12:13-21

3 August 2025

Fr. Ricky Cañet Montañez, AA

There is a saying that goes, “The real tragedy is not that life is short, but that we waste so much of it before we truly start to live.” Raise your hand if you use an iPhone.  I am sure you are careful with those phones because they are not cheap. Let me tell you a story of a girl who switched from Android to an iPhone 6 in 2014. Since then, every time Apple comes up with a new iPhone model, she feels the need to upgrade her phone. She knows she cannot afford it on her regular salary so she works overtime, limits her expenses and does work on the side so she can save up for it. She is so busy working that she has little time to meet up with friends, join family outings, and more so volunteer at church. To her mind, life is short so she should be able to enjoy the things she likes. She does not realise she is missing out on life by constantly chasing after the latest iPhone. 

I invite you take a few seconds and think about what you are chasing after in life? Your dream car? Your dream house? Your dream luxury bag? Now what are you willing to give up to attain it? Can you sleep less to work more? Can you sacrifice family time to attend to clients?  Will you forego Sunday mass for a work meeting? It is not that work or achievements are bad — but if they become our main purpose, they leave us empty. 

The First Reading from Ecclesiastes bluntly tells us: “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) The writer has seen how people spend their lives toiling, acquiring, and worrying, only to have no peace of mind and eventually leave their possessions to someone else when they die. 

St. Paul, in the Letter to the Colossians, reminds us that as followers of Christ we need to be concerned with the things that last and truly matter: “Seek what is above, where Christ is seated.” (Colossians 3:1) He reminds us that our true identity and meaning are hidden in Christ. We are asked to cease our bad habits of “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5) because they lead us away from Christ. Life is not about clinging to possessions, reputations, or earthly securities, but about living as people who belong to God, wearing the “new self” renewed in Christ. 

Jesus drives the lesson home in the Gospel when He tells the story of the rich man who stored up much grain thinking he had secured his future: “Relax, eat, drink, and be merry!” (Luke 12:19) The surprising twist is that God is not impressed at all. Instead, He calls the man a fool — because that very night his life would end, and all the fruits of his hard work would slip from his hands.All his barns and goods — what would they mean now that he was to die that night? The tragedy was not just his death; it was that he never really lived beyond himself. 

One of my favourite poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay reads:  

My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends –

It gives a lovely light.

I like it because it reminds me that life is to be lived passionately in the present — not tomorrow, not only when we reach our goals, not only when we have everything we think we need. Life is to be lived now: with gratitude, with generosity, with faith. Children often know this better than we, adults; they live in the moment; they trust there will be a tomorrow. We, adults sometimes forget, weighed down by worries, or chasing after more and more. 

The Gospel invites us not to waste life. It is short, fragile, and fleeting, but in God, it is also beautiful and full of meaning. The way to live it well is not to cling tightly to possessions or success, but to be “rich in what matters to God” — faith, love, generosity, and a heart open to His presence. So today, let us ask ourselves: Am I rushing through life chasing after things that will not last? If our answer is yes, then let us take this moment as a reminder that life is to be lived — fully, gratefully, and always in God.