Homily

This parable of the barn-building man is only in Luke's Gospel, and it carries two very important themes of Luke's Christian viewpoint. The first one is faith in God rather than faith in yourself or in your material possessions. The second theme is not so obvious but it's still there. Who is in this parable besides God on the night of the man's death? No one else. The rich man is all by himself and notice when he talks about what he will do with his new wealth, he doesn't mention the poor who might be helped by his fortunes. But more surprisingly he doesn't even mention family or relatives. It's all about him, and he will eat, drink and be merry for many years or so he thinks.

When the rich man comes into the super-abundant harvest he makes a plan, he takes action: he will build barns to store his grain. There's nothing wrong in doing that; of course, there is nothing wrong with making a plan. We have routines that we tend to follow during the day and during the week. We make plans for things that do not fall into our normal routines. For example, you probably have some kind of plans for later this week on Thursday.

We make plans because we need to think about how to deal with a different situation, something unusual, out of the normal, not a part of what is considered regular. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving every day, every week or every month, and if we want to celebrate it in some special way, then we need to make a plan for how to do it. Nobody gets up on Thanksgiving Day and says, "I wonder what will happen today?" No, there is usually some kind of plan no matter how simple it may be.

But we don't have to plan for the routine and the regular events of our lives. And, strangely enough, we generally do not have to plan for sinning. Did you ever think about that? We usually don't find any need to plan for doing wrong; we just jump into it like seasoned veterans who have practiced this sin so often that it's as easy as falling off a bike. Seriously though, isn't there some truth to this? We can plan our sins, and sometimes we do, because some sins require timing, coordination, extra effort, and thought, such as robbing a bank. That should probably be planned very well if you don't want to get caught. But many of our sins come to us very naturally without any need at all to think about how we will execute them. We commit them on the fly, as situations present themselves to us; no need to wait until we can think about it and then decide how to act. Temptation comes, choice is made, deed is done. We can be very economical in our sinning: we often don't waste any time getting it done.

On the other hand, we know it's a lot harder to practice virtue, because, unlike sin, it takes a good deal more effort, most of the time, to do what is right, especially when we are tempted in the other direction. It just doesn't seem to come so easily to us, this doing of virtue, as sin does. Therefore, I suggest we embrace the idea of making some plans to be and to do good, and not evil.

We are familiar with this idea of planning to do good because we have used it at times in the past or even the present. For example, Aunt Helen is coming for Thanksgiving dinner. She’s always very fussy and critical about almost everything. So you make a plan. Knowing this is how she is, you decide you will do your best not to react badly to her when starts acting like Aunt Helen. You will ignore her little snipes and criticisms and you ask the Lord to help you do so. Not only that, but you will also really try to keep your inner peace as well. This is planning to do good and avoiding sin. You yourself did not sleep well and you are feeling very tired and irritable. But you decide that you’re not going to allow that to affect how you treat your family today, so you are going to pay attention to that. You know that once you get in the car you are a huge critic of other people’s bad driving. Although they may well deserve your righteous indignation you make a plan and try to practice patience and forgiveness for those other drivers who are so truly aggravating. You have a problem with overeating, which is not good for your health. You need a plan to try and work on changing that situation.

There are certainly areas in, or aspects of our lives, that we have tried to work on, especially if they have bothered us, and that is very good. And yet, I think in general, we don't spend an excessive amount of time on planning for good actions and avoiding bad actions. It's almost as though we think goodness falls our way as easily as sin, and that it is just natural for us to keep getting better and better without too much of any special kind of care and attention. But that’s not really the case.

It is good for us to plan for specific types of virtues we may want to grow in. Maybe we realize we need to be more patient with other people and even with ourselves. Why not deliberately plan, every day, considering the situations, the people, the means, the reactions, the remedies, the thoughts that need to be handled so that I can grow in patience? And then why not pray for that virtue, knowing the Lord can truly help us in ways we cannot always see? Only good can come out of this kind of planning. Why not make a plan about how to do better at work, or how to be better at home, or with this person, or in these certain situations? Why not make a plan for the times that are likely to come up where you know you'll be tempted?

Make a plan, and keep on planning, and keep on praying, to do better in specific ways with other people or situations, so that we can better live and breathe with more virtue than we do right now, and if we ask the Lord to help us and guide us in these efforts we can be sure that He will support us by His grace in achieving our good intentions. We may not see overnight success and often virtue is gained only bit by bit, but that should not discourage us from seeking what is good, should it? The barn-building man had come up with a plan that only served himself and only in material ways. We can do better. No matter how much or how little we may have in the bank, we can all grow richer in the things that matter to God.

It may not seem natural to plan for thinking and acting to grow in greater specific virtue in specific ways, for specific people and situations. But it could become natural for us with effort and practice. We probably have some type of plans for Thanksgiving Day. Why not also a plan to focus on growing in some good virtue? We may not need bigger barns to store all our stuff, but we could all use bigger hearts to love our God and our neighbor. A blessed Thanksgiving Day to all of you.