| A certain ungodly tavern-keeper in Russia, who liked music, decided to attend a Divine Liturgy to hear the beautiful singing. He had resolved, however, not to listen to the sermon. He sat with his head down and his fingers in his ears. But when God wants to speak to a man’s soul, He has His ways. A fly flew on the man’s nose and when he attempted to drive it away with his hand, he heard nine words that would forever change his life. He heard the priest say: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” From that moment he had no rest in his soul. Something was stirred up within him. He returned the next day, listened intently, and was soon converted to the Orthodox faith.
This brief story underscores the importance of “soul-care” and “soul-care” is rooted directly in Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 12:16-21). Above all, Jesus is the Pastor of souls. He heals, He uplifts, He brings insight to our souls in the hopes of moving us ever closer to the God of love. In the Gospel of Matthew, for example, the Lord exclaims “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26) The human soul is a priceless treasure. It is not only the source of our life, it is our truest identity, it is the real “us.” It was the soul that God breathed into Adam in the moment of Creation. In fact, the Sacred Scripture teaches that our soul is more valuable than the entire creation itself. And yet, many people “sell their souls” for what surely are petty bargains. The rich man in Sunday’s Gospel is one such example. He was a man who had it all and had it in abundance. Worried about his possessions and not having enough room to add to them, he tore down his old barns with a view to building bigger, more spacious ones – secure in the belief that what he owned was safe. He then rested and said: “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.” God’s voice erupts: ‘You fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” “Soul-care” means being rich toward God not the ego-centered satisfaction of our appetites in the world. It means that living spiritually is, to borrow a term from the German philosopher Emmanuel Kant, our “categorical imperative” – we are compelled in our hearts to do it.. The rich fool lost sight of this priority in his life – just before God called for his soul. In his commentary on this Lucan passage, the Biblical scholar Fr. Joseph Fitzmeyer expresses it in an unvarnished way: “We are greedy children. No, we may not be greedy with our money. We may not have multiple cars, and many closets with hundreds of pairs of shoes. But we must confess that we are all greedy with our time, our experiences, and our hearts. We idolize our time and experiences, and we want to protect our hearts even from Christ so that He won’t change us while we’re not looking. It might be that we are utterly terrified of becoming holy because we look at the world of goodies, and know that becoming holy means that someday we will not care for these things. Someday, if we give control of our hearts to Christ, we may in fact become selfless. But this will go against our plans. This will go against our hard work This will change us into someone other than who we are now, and we rather like who we are now. Sadly because of our ego-love we do not become who we truly already are.” At best, we become “part-time” disciples and our life becomes an anemic commitment to God. The rich fool’s loss of his spiritual priorities not only reveals what is in his mind but exposes his egregious lack of “soul-care.” Yes, he will take care of his property, his crops, his belongings, the “things of this world”, he will worry about them, build bigger storage units for them, all the while being blind to the nature and destiny of his soul. In other words, he gave little or no care for the God dwelling within him (i.e. his soul) choosing instead the “bling” of the here and now, those “shiny” objects, people, and experiences that catch our attention, feed our ego, prop up our image, and ultimately hold us captive. It was living this kind of life that caused the voice of God to sound like thunder in the rich man’s ears: “You fool!” This night thy soul shall be taken from thee. And the things you have amassed, whose will they be?” Over against the man’s shallow living, God injects the voice of wisdom: if you live an empty, non-spiritual life, in the end there will be nothing but that emptiness left. It is important for us to know where it was that the rich fool went wrong. It is clear that he engaged in wrong preparation, adopted wrong intentions, and worked towards the wrong goals. This was a deadly combination for his soul. Regarding wrong preparation, This man’s life was busy in pursuing the comforts of this life and not on pursuing God. He wanted to build bigger barns, but God brought in a new perspective. The man won’t live to see them. In fact, he won’t even live to build them. He made plans only for this life but not for what comes after – his heavenly destiny. God was not in his life. He did not consider God at all. This is why he was “poor towards God – because for him God was but an afterthought, if that! To make matters worse, the rich fool adopted the wrong intentions. This man’s heart was filled with pride and self-reliance – He was a self-made man and allowed his ego to flow down that self-absorbed stream, impervious to the promptings of the One who created the waters. The Holy Apostle St. Timothy asserted the dangers of this way of living: ““Tell those who are rich not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which will soon be gone, but their pride and trust should be in the living God who always richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give happily to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them.” Notice the contrast in intentions between the rich fool and St. Timothy’s counsel. It was advice that was “other-directed” not self-absorbed. The great American preacher, H. Richard Niebuhr, once remarked in a sermon: “Remember, At the close of life, the question will not be how much have you got, but how much have you given. Not how much have you won, but how much have you done? Not how much have you saved, but how much have you sacrificed. Not how much have you been honored, but how much have you served?” Lastly, the pathetic rich fool had established the wrong goals for his life. He had set a good goal assuming that he would be around to enjoy his wealth – not knowing that that night would be his last. In centering his life around the transient things of this world, in counting on them for meaning, for happiness, and for lasting comfort, he missed the point. In his Epistle, the Holy Apostle St. James writes: “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are but a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes (James 4:13-14). The rich fool built his life’s goals on that which passes into oblivion rather than on that which is permanent and forever lasting – life in, and with, and for God. This is the secret of “being rich toward God” – that we live for Him first, that we make him our ultimate concern, that we strive to look beyond that which passes to the eternal Kingdom where there is no sorrow, sighing, and the lamentation that characterizes this passing world. Spiritual wealth means consciously living and shaping our daily life in the image of the Eternal One who gave it to us. Prepare, have the right intentions, and set the right goals for yourself – this is authentic “soul-care.” I wish each of you the strength and grace to lift your vision from the weight of the passing earth to the glory and promise of the Kingdom of Light. Let us pray for one another. Faithfully yours in the Lord, |
