Rich Toward God, Not the World: Wisdom for a Life Not Wasted: August 3, 2025

Rich. A wise and believing person knows that riches come from God and belong to Him. God has entrusted him with the management of His riches to make them bear fruit for the benefit of all His children.

Table of Contents

Rich Toward God, Not the World

“But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
— Matthew 6:33

“‘My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’”

“‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions..’” Indeed, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” as Qoheleth said in the first reading.

There is a strong connection between the first reading and the Gospel. But also with the responsorial psalm and the second reading in which Saint Paul invites the Colossians to seek the realities above and to put to death in themselves what belongs only to the earth, in particular, “the thirst for possessions.”

The unity of the teaching theme of the readings for this 18th Sunday is evident. They evoke the urgency of mission and conversion of heart in relation to the human concept of material wealth and the ephemeral condition of human beings. The brevity and fragility of human life are well expressed in the common metaphor of Psalm 144:4 which says: “Human life, a mere puff of wind, days as fleeting as a shadow.” This is vanity.

Qoheleth preaches on this vanity by meditating on the life of Solomon in order to invite humans to wisdom and faith which consist in abandoning themselves into the hands of God. For God alone holds the keys to true wisdom and knows all the mysteries of life. Apart from Him, all search for happiness is vain.

In the Gospel, Jesus warns us against greed, which makes us blind, indifferent, and turns us away from God. By refusing to be the judge and arbiter of the divisions between the two brothers who are fighting over the inheritance, Jesus indicates that this is not his role, or rather, it is not his mission. His mission is to announce the Good News of salvation, to make the Father known. His mission is to help people to reflect, to know how to establish the right priorities, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things will be added to them (cf. Mt 6:33). This mission is urgent; there is no room for distraction.

We are gathered in the General Chapter to reflect on the urgency of the Dominican mission today among the different audiences for preaching that we have identified. I don’t know to which audience this man belongs who asked Jesus the question of the sharing of inheritance and what type of preaching should we bring to this kind of people that we also encounter in our societies?

Faced with irresponsible behavior described as foolish, Jesus invites us to lucidity and wisdom, as does Qoheleth. For as the psalmist says: “Man in his prosperity forfeits intelligence: he is one with the cattle doomed to slaughter” (Ps 48:21). Another psalm says: “Put no reliance on extortion, no empty hopes in robbery; though riches may increase, keep your heart detached” (Ps 61:11).

Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel reminds us of what he said to Martha: “‘Martha, Martha,’ he said ‘you worry and fret about so many things…and yet few only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.’” This better part is to listen to the Lord. Yes, only one thing is necessary: to seek to “be rich in God’s sight,” that is, to cultivate our intimacy with God, to deepen our faith, our hope, and our charity. To direct our whole life toward God and toward what is eternal. Yes, only one thing is necessary: to be a preaching friar, to live an authentic Dominican life.

A wise and believing person knows that riches come from God and belong to Him. God has entrusted him with the management of His riches to make them bear fruit for the benefit of all His children.

In the Congo wisdom of my country, there is a proverb that says: “What you inherit, you must make fruitful”; or “what you benefit from, you must increase.” And we Dominicans, what heritage have we received and how must we make it fruitful for our mission today?

In Congo culture, inheritance is a very sensitive and contentious subject. Inheritance divides and tears families apart. It creates a lot of injustice and scandal. Indeed, in Congo tradition, the lineage is matriarchal, meaning that the child belongs to the mother’s family and not the father’s. One of the implications of this matriarchal system is that the child does not inherit his father’s property. He inherits the property of his maternal uncle. The heirs to his father’s property are his nephews and nieces. Upon the death of the father, sometimes even before the burial, the widow and children are chased from the family home. The family seizes all the property. What Qoheleth says is exactly what is happening in the Congo: “For here is one who has labored wisely, skillfully and successfully and must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all.” This situation, which is still current, should challenge us and make us think.

Another scandalous phenomenon is the accumulation of wealth for oneself. This demon of greed haunts Congolese society and religious life. A handful of people close to power or the family are grabbing the country’s wealth, accumulating assets: billions of our francs, excessively expensive luxury vehicles, houses, land sometimes expropriated from the poor or purchased at rock-bottom prices, while the vast majority of the population languishes in poverty: no water, no electricity, no medicines or proper care in hospitals. Perhaps the Church, the Order, our provinces and our convents are also accumulating assets?

Speaking of the demands of our preaching, the General Chapter of Trogir in 2013 drew our attention to “individualism and with a bourgeois spirit, with the loss of strength and of the credibility necessary for proclaiming the gospel” (Trogir 2023, 43). May those who have amassed wealth think of the poor like us, the young province of Saint Charles Lwanga in equatorial Africa. We have many needs to keep this baby province alive. Help us, please!

As brothers, we are sometimes unaware of how much we accumulate in our cells. It is only the day we receive a new summons to leave the convent that we realize all that we have accumulated over the years, stored in our closets or suitcases: clothes, books, expired medicines, while poor people die because they cannot afford the medicines that you are going to throw in the trash.

Our vow of poverty challenges us in the face of the temptation to accumulate wealth. Dominic never amassed wealth for himself. What he had, even his books, which were precious for his ministry, he sold to help people who were dying of hunger.

^“Teach us to count up the days that are ours, and we shall come to the heart of wisdom.” Amen.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update. You can subscribe to our podcasts on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.