Our Sabbath Scripture Stories – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C

Read or listen to this Sunday’s Mass readings here.

  • Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
  • Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
  • Luke 12:13-21

Dishes and breakfast plates were still being rattled as Mom called the family down for breakfast.  It was a gorgeous Sunday morning.  Hillary and Lucy were putting out glasses for milk, Mary Clare was arranging the silverware, and little Ben was already in his high chair.

“Where is Vincent?” Mom asked the girls.  “I thought we called him down to breakfast five minutes ago!”

Just then, Vincent appeared in the kitchen.  But he looked a bit different.  There was something white on his chin and by the corner of his mouth.

Dad looked at his son with a slight smile.  “Vincent, were you upstairs shaving?” he asked him.

“No, not at all, Dad,” Vincent replied, wondering what prompted the question.  “Why do you ask?”

“Well, there is something white on your chin!” Dad told him.

Vincent took a swipe at his chin, and his eyes looked down.  “That’s not shaving cream, Dad,” his son reported.  “It’s whipped cream!”

“Vincent!” Mom stated.  “Is that the whipped cream from the Twinkies?  Did you go hide big box of Twinkies in your room again?”

“Ah, Mom,” Vincent answered sheepishly.  “You know how much I love them!”
“Well, we will deal with this issue later!” Mom said.  Then, turning to her family, she said, “Right now, we have to eat breakfast and do our Scripture reading for Mass.”

After the dishes were cleared, Mom and Dad called the family into the living room to hear the Gospel for this morning.  It was taken from Luke, chapter 12, and is known as the “Parable of the Rich Fool.”  In this parable, Jesus told of a man who stores up grain for himself without concern for others.

As Dad closed the Bible, he asked, “Okay, kids, what do you think of the man from today’s reading?  Do you think he was doing what God wants him to do?”

“Well, I’m not sure, Dad,” Lucy said first.  “It’s nice to keep treasures, isn’t it?  I have a whole set of sea shells!”

Dad nodded.  “Sea shells are nice, Lucy, but Jesus is making a bigger point about detaching from material possessions.  Jesus is talking about hoarding things.”

“Hoar-ding?” 4-year-old Hillary slowly said.  “What does that word mean, Daddy?”

Mr. Pauline looked at his wife with a questioning look.  How could he explain  the word “hoarding” to a 4-year-old?

“I wish there was a simple way to explain to you how Jesus wants us to let go of material things, Hillary,” Dad started.  “If only there was an easier way to explain it … “

“I’ve got it, Dad!” Vincent yelped, standing now in the center of the group.  “I know a way to explain this parable to Hillary and Lucy!”

“You do?” Dad gratefully beamed.  “Well, let’s hear it!”

“It’s also kind of a personal apology … ”  Vincent shuffled.  “So here goes!”  Vincent cleared his throat and began.  “You see, there once was this good-looking boy who loved Twinkies … “

“Ohhhh,” thought the family.  “We know who this is!”

“Anyway, he loved Twinkies so much that he kept storing more and getting more,” Vincent went on.  “Soon he had so many Twinkies that he needed a bigger bedroom to store them all in.  They wouldn’t all fit under his bed anymore!”

He went on.  ” ‘Hooray,’ thought this boy!  ‘I have so many Twinkies stored up, I won’t have to worry about getting more for years!  I can have my fill for years to come, and no one can ever take them away from me!’ ”  Vincent reasoned. 

Then Vincent’s tone went low. “But then, this nice young man hears a voice.  It’s the voice of God.  God tells him that he can’t hide these Twinkies and keep them all to himself!  These Twinkies are for his own nourishment and the nourishment of others.  If something happened to this boy, or let’s say, he develops a bad whipped-cream allergy, all these Twinkies would be wasted!

The boy should have shared all the Twinkies he had!  God blessed him in the first place with a load of Twinkies.  The boy should have gone on and blessed others!”

The family hung on Vincent’s every word as Vincent began summing up his unique parable.  “So you see, it’s not what you get, it’s what you give.  And, Mom,” Vincent said somberly, “after this, I’m going to go upstairs and dig out my stash of Twinkies to share with everyone.  You bought them for the whole family anyway!”

After a moment of stunned silence, Dad spoke.  “That was amazing, Vincent!  I think you learned your lesson about hoarding.  God makes the point in this Gospel that when we are blessed with an abundance of things, we have to go out and bless others!  We can’t take it with us when we die, can we?”

“And, they won’t stay fresh forever!” Vincent added.

 Everyone watched as Vincent ran upstairs.  He soon appeared with four family-size cartons of Twinkies he was keeping under his bed.

“So, that’s where my groceries have been going!” Mom exclaimed.  She was glad about this teachable moment from today’s Gospel, yet wondering how she could have not noticed Vincent’s Twinkie caper for so long. 

What a great lesson they ALL learned!

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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – CDownload

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