Eccl 1:2, 2:21-23
Col 3:1-5 9-11
Lk 12:13-21
Bishop Untener's Homily
This Gospel passage is about greed, or at least that’s how we translate the word that Jesus uses in the Gospel. Luke wrote his Gospel in Greek, and the Greek word that he uses when Jesus says, "Take care to guard against all greed" is "pleonexia." It is made up of two words: "pleo" which means "more," and "nexia" which means "to want." So what we’re talking about is the condition of "wanting more."
When we realize that the word means "to want more," we can get at the deeper meaning of this Gospel passage. I think that there are very few people who have the crude selfishness and thirst for money that we associate with the word "greed." No, I don’t think there are many people in this world like that, and I don’t think you and I have to worry about that.
But you see, that isn’t quite what the word means. It simply means "to want more." More than what? This is where it gets interesting. It means to want to keep more than I’m meant to have.
I’ll tell you what opened my eyes to this. It’s something I just happened to stumble on. There is a disease of the blood that is called by that Greek word "pleonexia" – "to want more." It is described as "a tendency of the hemoglobin of the blood to retain oxygen, yielding less than normal amounts to the tissues of the body."
Think about that. The blood receives oxygen, and it can keep some for itself, but the blood runs throughout our body so that it can give some of that oxygen to the whole body. "Pleonexia" is the condition whereby the blood keeps too much for itself. The blood mistakenly thinks that, having received this oxygen, it "owns" the oxygen. The blood fails to realize that it is meant to distribute this oxygen to the body. It distributes some to the body, but not enough, and it ends up keeping too much for itself. It "wants more" than it is meant to have.
That is a great insight into the kind of greed we have to be concerned about, namely, keeping too much for ourselves... keeping more than we are meant to keep.
Everything we have, even our existence, comes from God. It doesn’t matter how much or how little we have. The mistake is to think that we "own" it all – our talents, our money, our possessions. We give some away, of course, but we can keep too much for ourselves. God says, "You’re missing the point. I placed you here to use all these gifts to make this world a better place – to help transform the human race and all creation into the reign of God." God says, "You’re like the blood that runs through your body. You are meant to distribute this to make the whole body healthy."
The problem then, isn’t "raw greed" – trying to amass more and more and more. The problem is "pleonexia" – keeping too much for ourselves. The problem is forgetting why we have these talents, why we have this money, why we have these possessions. They are given to us for the sake of the whole human race, for all creation.
Note how Jesus says that we must "guard against all greed." We have to "guard against it" because it creeps up on us like a disease. It infects us and we can have this condition called "pleonexia."
We have to keep coming back to a fundamental principle: God created me and put me on earth for a purpose. This applies to all of us – rich, poor, middle class... educated, uneducated... married, single, young, old. God created me and put me on earth for a purpose. Whatever I have is meant to be used well to accomplish that purpose. To do that I have to be on guard against all forms of "pleonexia"... to want more than I was meant to keep... keeping things for myself and not giving enough to others. It can be as simple as keeping back a smile – it’s meant to be given to others, not kept for myself. And compliments, affirming words. And thank-yous. And time. And skills, perhaps just a listening ear. And money. And possessions.
When we see ourselves as having these gifts so that, like the blood sharing oxygen, we can share the gifts with others... then everything looks different. And it looks so much better. Our life has more meaning. There is a purpose to every day, every hour of our existence, because I realize that God created me and put me on earth for a purpose, one given to no one else.
I close with this. The best antidote to the disease of "pleonexia" is the Eucharist. When the gifts are brought forward and placed on the altar, they represent us, and all that we have. We place everything in the Lord’s hands, and we join with him as he gives himself completely to the Father. We do it through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, and we acknowledge that all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Originally given on August 5, 2001