Faith led Abraham to act. He acted in the hope that what God promised He would do. Abraham loved God with his entire being and entrusted himself to God wholly. This is why Saint Paul, both in his Letters to the Galatians and Romans, holds up Abraham as an example of righteousness.
Abraham stands in stark contrast to the wealthy, successful, self-satisfied rich man in the Lord’s parable found in today’s Gospel. In 1 Timothy, we learn that “love of money is the root of all evils.”1 Greed, a one-word synonym for “love of money,” is one of the seven deadly sins. The inspired author of this letter notes that it is due to greed some “have strayed from the faith…”2
It is empirically demonstrable that the more affluent a society grows the less religious it becomes. Wealth makes you believe you are self-sufficient. In the U.S. we have the myth of the “self-made man.” I say “myth” because no one is self-made either in terms of life or even of wealth.
This isn't to say there are no wealthy people who place their hope in God. Certainly, there are well-off people who hold their wealth lightly and whose lives aren't devoted to accumulating wealth for its own sake and who are happy to generously give.
Wealth easily deceives a person into believing s/he has no need of God or, worse, that God, a little bit of religion for the sake of morality, is one of life’s optional extras or, as a certain biting critique of Christianity understands it, as a means of social control- the opiate of the masses.3
In his classic American novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck puts these words of the lips of his character Ma Joad, who has just received a kindness from another poor person- a dime to buy sugar: “If you’re in trouble or hurt or need – go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones.”4 This is a sad but telling insight.
The question our readings today pose is in what or in whom do you place your hope? Abraham placed his hope in God and God alone. At God’s command, he packed up all he owned, took his family, and left Ur of the Chaldees for the land of Canaan, a place he had likely never been and probably knew existed only because God told him about it.
The second verse of the U2 song “Walk On” describes Abraham’s predicament beautifully:
You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been/This describes not only what Abraham did but what the Lord calls you and I to do. Among the things God will not be impressed with at end of your life are your bank account, your investment portfolio, your cool cars, beautiful home, and your vacations hither and yon.
A place that has to be believed to be seen5
In what do you place your hope? You place your hope in what you believe will give you security. In this parable, Jesus demonstrates dramatically not only the grave error of trusting in wealth but putting your hope in anyone or anything other than God.
With this parable, Jesus urges his listeners to grow “rich in what matters to God.”6 And so, to extend U2’s song:
You’ve got to leave it behind: All that you fashion/Like Canaan, the land promised by God to Abraham, our destination must be believed to be seen.
All that you make/All that you build…
All that you dress up/
And all that you scheme/
All you create/
You’ve got to leave it behind”7
1 1 Timothy 6:10.↩
2 1 Timothy 6:10.↩
3 See Pope Benedict XVI Encyclical Letter Deus caritas est, sec. 26.↩
4 John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath, chapter 26.↩
5 U2. Song “Walk On” off the album All That You Can’t Leave Behind, released in 2000.↩
6 Luke 12:21.↩
7 "Walk On."↩
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