(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/BIC-Mass-Blog-for-the-Eighteenth-Sunday-in-Ordinary-Time.mp3)
Faith-based knowledge is power—when applied for the sake of beneficiaries.
But some keep such knowledge to themselves. The faithless both disbelieve and mock such knowledge, making the faithful fear that sharing it might lose them friends. Such friends prefer knowledge fused with monetized skills.
But if obtaining earthly goods is the extent of one’s knowledge investment, thinking can become a vanity project yielding nothing of worth—and ultimately nothing. Sunday’s first reading from Ecclesiastes might be interpreted as belief that faith-infused knowledge is a useless legacy to leave behind if beneficiaries don’t work at benefiting from it.
Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property. (Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23)
Knowledge leading to wisdom is a Godly legacy. Because God’s Kingdom is built on gospel truth, it’s the only property that lasts forever. It continues to set souls free from the temporal, as Jesus did during his earthly ministry. But we must do our part to change our devotion to the temporary, as Paul tells the Corinthians in Sunday’s second reading:
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. 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. (Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11)
A life reflecting God’s Word to the world is the only lasting legacy we can offer our loved ones when we leave them and let them face the world by themselves. For those who think leaving a million bucks behind will help, Jesus offers his Father’s tough love through Luke’s gospel:
‘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.” (Luke 12:13-21)
The only way to take THAT treasure with you is to leave it behind.
–Tom Andel
This entry espouses the wisdom of which it speaks. In today’s world where information is so available (whether it’s accurate or not), it is even more important that we seek out truth, understanding and SHARE with each other. As a lifelong Catholic, I’ve found my journey has come full circle in some regards, relearning in new ways the truths that I was taught as a child on a whole new level. I hope that I can put it to good use for the benefit of others and the glory of God, to be a good example both in my actions and being able to back it up with His teaching.
Mike, by continuously relearning the wisdom of our faith, you’re doing what St. Paul teaches us to do in this Sunday’s letter to the Colossians: “Putting on the new self.” We do that by learning from each other. When you and I became Brother Knights in the Knights of Columbus, we were asked to tear a single fiber in half. It was easy. Then we were handed a cord made of single fibers and asked to tear it in half. Impossible. The significance of this ceremony is to teach the strength of our faith, which is found in the Church Christ founded. Church is a gathering of souls serving the purposes of the One whose essence is love and whose presence is eternal. In that way, everyone dedicated to being part of God’s lifeline is a Brother or Sister in Christ.
This reflection makes me ponder the principles provided by a Deacon out in Wyoming. His four pillars:
God created everything.
Therefore everything belongs to God.
Everything we have is a gift from God.
Therefore we must return it all to Him.
Like the readings for this Sunday, we are reminded the only possession that matters and will last is our relationship with Christ, and his gift to us his eternal kingdom.
As the saying goes, I have yet to see a Uhaul trailer towed behind the hearse on the way to the cemetery.
“For we brought nothing into the world, and we take nothing out of it.”
Tim 6:7
Thomas, that Deacon’s principles made me think of one more: If this world is God’s gift to us, how can we return it a little better than we found it?