So on this joyous day of Raissa’s baptism, we have a fairly solemn Gospel reading, in which our Lord tells a parable of a certain rich man, who had lots of stuff—like too much stuff, so he didn’t have enough space for all his stuff.

And he thought, “Okay, well, I need more space for all my stuff. And so I’m going to tear down my current barns and build bigger ones so I have all my stuff laid up for many years, and then I will say to my soul: soul, you have stuff laid up for many years, eat, drink, and be merry.”

And then God says to him, “You fool. Today, this very day, your soul will be required of you. And then whose will all those things be, which you have stored? All that stuff. Whose will it be?”

So as I say, it’s a solemn parable, but it’s actually, in many respects, very appropriate, given that, in baptism, you’ll notice, the child is stripped of everything, and goes into the water, and is immersed into the water, naked, and bereft of all stuff: has no stuff at all.

Because that’s us. That is our ultimate destination. Nothing will enter the kingdom of God of all those things that we have accumulated in this life.

Except, by the grace of God, us.

So Jesus is telling this parable in a certain context. He’s telling the parable in the context of a family argument.

Someone from the crowd comes up to Jesus and says, “Rabbi, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

And Jesus responds, “Man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you?” And then he says, quite specifically, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

And that’s the beginning of this parable that we just considered, the reason that Jesus says this parable in the first place. But it’s interesting that if you look a little further back in this in Luke’s Gospel, Luke actually sets up another family feud. And this one should be pretty familiar to us, particularly at this season of the year, when we are celebrating a Marian feast, because this is one of the Gospel readings that we hear, every feast, where we celebrate something about Mary.

“And it happened,” it says, “as they went, that Jesus entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha, welcomed him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Jesus and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’”

It may not be as big a deal as, “Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me,” but this is what happens in families. We get annoyed with one another. Martha is really busy cooking up a storm, and Mary’s just sitting there. Doing nothing.

And so, Martha asked Jesus to intervene on her behalf. And Jesus answers and says to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Now we read this at Marian feasts not because the early Christians were really confused, thinking that anybody who has the name Mary must be the same person. They knew that this was a different Mary.

But it’s interesting that this also isn’t the end of the reading. It is the end of the reading right here, but we actually skip ahead.

In Luke’s Gospel, just a few verses later, when someone bursts out to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you in the breast that nursed you,” Jesus responds, “Say rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.” And we glom these two things together, because this describes the Church’s experience of Mary, the mother of God. And you can see this, even in Luke’s gospel, when, at the very beginning, when all these various things are happening to Mary and to her son, and what does it say? “Mary heard all these things, and treasured them in her heart.”

So, the reminder, then, that we begin with today is this reminder of death. Death is coming for us all, even from our very beginning of our life.

And we have to, then, think very seriously about what we prioritize in our life. And Mary gives us the clue as to what it is that we actually need to prioritize. What is the one thing that is needful, which will not be taken away from her? And that is, simply put, adoration.

And here, again, it’s very appropriate that we have a baptism of an infant. Because if there’s one thing that an infant, a child, knows how to do, It’s to adore its mother. With the mother, the infant is at peace. With the mother, the infant is untroubled, and able to relax, and actually just enjoy life.

Take the infant away from its mother, and you notice that sometimes they’re a little bit crotchedy and fidgety, and not quite comfortable. But give the infant back to the mother, and all of a sudden, it’s quiet. It’s calm. It’s at peace And this is the essence of adoration.

But it also comes with something else, because one thing that the infant is doing, even at this point, is learning. And in order to learn, you simply have to do one thing: listen attentively. And that, of course, is what Mary is doing. She’s listening attentively at the feet of Jesus.

That is the essence of her adoration. That is the essence of what is this act of worship that she is engaged in: that listening attentively at the foot of him who is her ultimate protector, at the foot of God incarnate.

But there’s one more thing that is there, because, of course, as I said, we conclude the Gospel reading with, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

This means two things. One, we, as we hear the word of God, we should treasure it in our hearts, as Mary did all the things that happened to her and Jesus.

We should treasure in our hearts the experience of God that we have in our own lives, as we experience his goodness, his grace, his mercy, in all sorts of different ways. Ah, but more than that: that, then, should shape how we act. Shape how we are. Shape how we speak.

Because the essence of adoration is love, and the natural response of love is action, action that is focussed on the beloved, whether that be simply sitting and listening attentively, or putting into practice that which you have heard from the beloved. And the motivation has to be love.

Because, ultimately, that is the essence of what we will take with us in our journey through life into eternity. Because we can’t take anything with us. Except ourselves, and, by virtue of ourselves, by virtue of the soul being eternal, the relationships that we have, with God and with one another. That’s why the two commandments are summed up as, “Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.” Because this is the basis of our own journey through life into eternity.

This is the basis of everything that we have, from here on, into eternity.

This is the basis of everything that we will be, from now into eternity. That love that we have for God, that love that we have for one another, that adoration, that joy in the presence of the other.

This is the one thing that is needful, and, by God’s grace, it will not be taken away from us, to his glory: the glory of the God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto to ages of ages.

Scripture readings cited:

* Luke 12:13-21

* Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28

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