of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
As many of you are aware, I am employed as a
teacher for a public charter school, and as an
educator, part of my job is assessing student
work and giving grades. And students complete
work, and they earn a grade. and when they are
successful, they earn an A. But in order to do
well, they need to understand the assignment.
Sometimes a student will misunderstand the directions,
or perhaps they don't even read the directions,
and they just do the assignment. I remember there
was an assignment about... Well, World War II,
D -Day invasion of Omaha Beach, and the reply
the assignment turned in was about Omaha, Nebraska.
There can be mistakes that we make by not fully
understanding the assignment and the directions.
It is wise to know what the assignment is before
you complete it. It is wise... to follow the
directions properly. And today's gospel reading
from Luke has an example for us of a man who
didn't read the directions. He has worked hard
and he completed a lot of tasks that he set for
himself. And in his own eyes, he is a great success.
However, in God's eyes, he is a fool. The class
that he is taking is the class of life. The teacher
of this class is God. The assignment is to lead
a successful life. Jesus tells us the parable
of this man. The ground of a certain rich man
yielded plentifully. In other words, he was blessed
with much material success. He tore down his
small barns and built bigger storage capacity.
And he said to his soul, Soul, you have many
goods laid up for many years. Take your ease.
Eat, drink, and be merry. And to this man, he
had completed the assignment. He had succeeded
at life. But what did God say? But God said to
him, Fool, this night your soul will be required
of you, and then whose will those things be which
you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure
for himself and is not rich towards God. The
man of this particular parable did not fully
understand the directions of how to succeed in
life. He got rich, he worked hard, but he failed
in the true assignment to get rich towards God.
And this is our assignment too, in our life,
to get rich towards God. We are enrolled in that
same class, the class of life. And all of us
one day will come to the end of our life and
stand before God. however many years that will
be. And when we do, we shall turn in our assignment.
Here is my life, Lord. And the question will
be, how did we do in becoming rich towards God?
Archbishop Andre of Novo de Vivo speaks of what
makes for success in becoming rich towards God.
He says this. What determines it? The entire
attitude of our life. And this attitude is expressed
in our every step, in every action, in every
breath. And how strange. Attitude seems to be
something unimportant to people and somehow incidental.
But it is not in God's eyes. This attitude is
just what defines that great mystery which you
and I will meet then at the moment of departure
and that which will determine our lot forever.
What was the attitude of the rich man in today's
gospel? Listen to what he says. My fruits. And
my goods, not even mentioning God. And yet the
harvest came from God. And where was the love
for neighbor? There was none, not even a thought
for his neighbor. All care was for himself alone.
Rest, food, drink, merriment, only for himself.
Selfishness. was the attitude of his life. For
us as Orthodox Christians, may the attitude of
our hearts be different. May it be like what
reads in the Psalms. May we give praise to God
for his blessings to us. And as we now approach
this holiday of Thanksgiving, may that be the
attitude of our heart. Thanksgiving to God for
all that he has given us. The psalmist David
says, let the heavens rejoice, let the earth
be glad, let the sea roar and all its fullness,
let the field be joyful and all that is in it,
let then all the trees of the woods will rejoice
before the Lord, for he is coming, for he is
coming to judge the earth, he shall judge the
world with righteousness and the peoples with
his truth. So let us remember as we go through
our lives to have the right attitude of thanksgiving
in our hearts and to remember that the assignment
is not to get rich, but to become rich towards
God. And may the attitude of each of our hearts
be that of love for God and for his commandments.
Glory to Jesus Christ.