Shore town homily

“The Gospel of the Lord.”

“Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.”

The congregation sat down.  The deacon walked to his seat from the pulpit, and Father walked to the pulpit from his seat.  He welcomed the new and the returning congregants.  He noted all the families seated together and said that that was good.  It was good to be together, Father emphasized.  He summarized the passage from Luke that the deacon had just read.  It was the parable of the rich man storing grain in his barns.  Father talked about how sharing among siblings is hard but important.  He noted the little siblings seated together and said that that was good.  Better to learn how to share when you are younger, he said with a smile.  He shared two stories of non-sharing from his own childhood, one where he was the perpetrator and one where he was the victim.  The parents in the pews smiled.  A few laughed.  It was a beautiful morning at the shore.  

Father then widened the scope of his homily.  He mentioned a report he read on the mental health of the ultra-wealthy.  It turns out, Father said, that the very rich in society are often the least happy.  He noted that this might be counterintuitive for many but that when we are defined by and attached to our possessions, we can never have enough and that makes us unhappy.  He moved to conclude, “Let us remember, that our possessions do not make us happy.”

Father took a short pause.  Internally, the pause seemed an eternity.  Did he just ruin vacation?  Did he now hear waves crashing?  A storm brewing?  Father looked at the pews.  Did he make a mistake?  He couldn’t tell.  

He decided to save the town and himself, from himself.  And so, Father, added, “It’s not that possessions are bad.  We can have possessions.  It is bad when we attach to them, or to anything.”

The seas calmed.  The smiling parents exhaled, Father imagined.

He had saved himself and the town, which would soon make its way toward communion and then later back to their houses and to the beach and then back to the rest of their lives, in the blissful sun among their possessions.  Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.