18th Sunday: The Self and an Onion

Readings for the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Ecclesiastes is echoed in Jesus' story of the Rich Fool. “You can’t take it with you.” Even an atheist can believe that.  Everything we own or experience has an expiration date.  “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities!  All things are vanity” Ecc. 1:2. Jesus tells his parable in the context of a man who is concerned about whether he will get his share of his father’s estate. There was a Rich Man, Jesus said, who had many possessions and built barns to house them all.

But God said to him, You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.” Lk. 12:20-21

Most of the clashes between human beings arise out of wanting our share or more than our share. Christianity preaches that merely being good is not enough; we are meant to be the image of God’s goodness in the world. To share in Divine Life, we need God's grace.  The love of God is to will the good of the other as the other and then do something about it. We call that the theological virtue of love or charity.
 
Treasures in Heaven
St. Paul preached on the central concern of the Gospel. What is important in life?

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. Col. 3:1-3

Paul taught that we must put off immorality, or lives run by our appetites and passions, evil desires and the greed that idolizes acquisition.

“Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self,
 which is being renewed, for knowledge, 
in the image of its creator. Col. 1:4

Jesus became human so that we could share in Divine Life by renewing the image of God in each one of us.
 
The New Self
Jesus came to save us from sin in order to share Divine life with us. Divine life is to love and exist in God. The Lord loves us into his own life. That is the reason for the Incarnation. God’s glory shines in the life of a human being that shares in his life. Think of the great saints; Our Blessed Lady, St. Francis, St. Therese of Lisieux and all the rest. They are all reflections of the love of God. The cross draws us into Divine life. God’s act of generosity lifts up our capacity for love. We love in a human way, often in a contractual way; I am good to those who are good to me. The perfect example of Divine Love is Jesus’ death on the cross. Faith, hope and love are the ways that we participate in Divine Life.
 
The Incarnation: Participation in Divine Life
Participation in the Divine Life is more than merely following Jesus’ example. We can try to act like Abraham Lincoln, but that is not the same thing as being Abraham Lincoln. Instead to participate in God, we live and act, as we pray in mass:

Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever. Amen.

Consider how ‘through him, with him and in him’ is a description of the sacramental life. We can’t have the grace of participating in God’s love without the Incarnation, God in our reality. Sacraments are a real incarnational sharing in Divine life. The sacraments are something that happens to us, not just something we imitate.  The sacramental life is how we receive grace that transforms us into Christ.
 
The Old Sinner and the Onion
Fyodor Dostoevsky tells his story about the insufficiency of good deeds and our need for grace.

Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire. So her guardian angel stood and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember to tell to God; ‘She once pulled up an onion in her garden,’ said he, ‘and gave it to a beggar woman.’ And God answered: ‘You take that onion then, hold it out to her in the lake, and let her take hold and be pulled out. And if you can pull her out of the lake, let her come to Paradise, but if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is.’ The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her. ‘Come,’ said he, ‘catch hold and I'll pull you out.’ And he began cautiously pulling her out. He had just pulled her right out, when the other sinners in the lake, seeing how she was being drawn out, began catching hold of her so as to be pulled out with her. But she was a very wicked woman and she began kicking them. ‘I'm to be pulled out, not you. It's my onion, not yours.’ As soon as she said that, the onion broke. And the woman fell into the lake and she is burning there to this day. So the angel wept and went away. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov: Optimized for ebook. Illustrated (p. 313). Knuts Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Our things are not enough to lift us up to God. We need God’s grace that changes the nature of our love from human to divine. That means how we look at our life must change.  The gifts of health, wealth, family and friends in our life are beautiful. They, however, are not eternal life. The sacraments are the way we experience God’s love in our human life. Following a good example is very important, but fundamentally we must be changed by participation in God’s grace.