Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C
Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2: 21-23
Ps. 95
Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11
Luke 12: 13-21

The connection between the readings today has to do with “world view.” The First Reading, from the book of Ecclesiastes, seems at first glance to be very fatalistic. The author has a world-weary attitude that says, “you work and work, and where do you end up? Dead!” As if reminding us that there is Someone else to be mindful of, the Responsorial Psalm sings: “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts!” In its chorus of praise, it includes the warning from the end of the psalm: “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, where your fathers tempted Me.” The Gospel relates the parable of the rich man who is so wrapped up in his profits that God has no place in his life. The judgment that falls on him is a total surprise to him: “You fool! This very night your life shall be required of you. To whom will all this piled-up wealth of yours go?” Jesus Himself gives the moral to the parable by adding, “That is the way it works with the man who grows rich for himself instead of growing rich in the sight of God.”

The Second Reading, concluding the Letter to the Colossians, gives us the theological point of reference with which these other readings may be viewed: “Be intent on things above rather than on things of earth.” The calling of those who have been baptized is to continue to “put to death” the things that keep us from our full potential in Christ, and to “set our hearts” on the things that join us even closer to God, through Christ.

This hymn is based on today’s Scriptures:
Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
All our striving and our toil are things we leave behind!
Each day and night we strive, we work
And still at the end will die:
If today you shall hear the voice of the Lord,
Then attend God's gracious word!

Greed in all its forms brings death, and things cannot give life.
Fools are we to grow rich for self and not grow rich with God!
"Eat, drink, be merry," calls the world,
And still at the end we die:
If today you shall hear the voice of the Lord,
Then attend God's gracious word!

Raised up now with Christ from death, we set our hearts on high;
Hidden now with Christ is our life, to glory we shall rise!
Fix now our hearts on things above,
Yes, even though we die:
If today you shall hear the voice of the Lord,
Then attend God's gracious word!

irregular meter
suggested tune: Promise (Martin Shaw)


Propers from the Roman Gradual

Introit: Deus in adiutorium (Ps. 70:2,3,4)
Make haste, O God, to my rescue, and save me.
O Lord, make speed to my deliverance.
Let my enemies be ashamed and put to confusion,
who seek to destroy my life.

Offertory: Precatus est Moyses (Ex. 32:11,15,13,14)
(matches the First Reading in Year B)
Moses prayed to the Lord his God and said:
Moses addressed this prayer to the Lord his God and declared:
Why, O Lord, is your anger enkindled against your people?
Let the wrath your mind has conceived cease.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
to whom you swore to give a land flowing with milk and honey.
And the Lord was dissuaded from accomplishing the evil
which he had threatened to inflict upon his people.

Communion: Panem de caelo (Wis. 16:20)
You gave us bread from heaven, O Lord,
having in it all that is delicious, and the sweetness of every taste.

Propers from the Simple Gradual

The suite of antiphons and psalms from Ordinary Time VI
(BFW 269–274, as well as BFW 232–234 and 241–243) —
God’s peace and loving kindness — is especially appropriate.

Entrance: Entrance: BFW 91 (O God, my God, rescue me . . . )
Response: Alleluia psalm BFW 206;
Gospel acclamation: BFW 205
Communion: BFW 210 (I am the living bread . . . )
or BFW 208 (You have fed your people . . . ),
without the alleluia, with verses from BFW 192
(only one preparatory syllable in the final cadence)