You know, we all like to smell good. Nobody wants to stink. And we will go to some pretty amazing lengths to smell good. It is just unbelievable to me how much money we spend to not smell like ourselves. We’ve got deodorants, and body sprays, and breath mints. But most amazing of all, are some of these extraordinarily priced perfumes and colognes they sell. Some people will spend big money to smell just ‘right’. Some of them cost hundreds of dollars per ounce. The perfume and cologne industry in the United States is huge. And then they have those names like Obsession, Unforgettable, and White Diamonds. That’s the one that I like. Have you seen that commercial? White Diamonds by Elizabeth Taylor. What in the world do “white diamonds” smell like? From the look of Elizabeth Taylor in those commercials, I think they probably smell like gin. Doesn’t she always look and sound like she’s drunk?

You may have read a few months ago about a lady out east, who was an Avon Lady. Now, these Avon ladies, or people, excuse me – They are also really concerned about the way that they smell. In fact, they are concerned about the way that all of us smell. But it seems that this one Avon lady died. And after she died, and they went into her house, they found thousands of bottles of her favorite Avon perfume, which, at some point, Avon had discontinued. When Avon did this, her friends say that this so freaked this poor woman out that she went out and bought all that she could of this one kind of cologne! And then she died! All those bottles of perfume didn’t save her. In the end they didn’t even keep her from smelling bad. This is the same message we’re hearing at Mass today.

And you know, we’ve got to ask ourselves, “Why do we do that?” Why do we horde things? Why is it that we think that our “things” are going to save us? And to a certain extent, we all do it! We might not all be crazy enough to buy hundreds of bottles of perfume, but we can all rely on our “things” way too much! Whether it is our homes, or our clothes, or our cars, or our wine. Things can be way too important to us. Jesus is advising us against the kind of view that places riches and material possessions in a place of prominence in our lives. We must not use these as indicators of the value of our lives. Jesus’ story today is a blunt reminder of where this idolatry leads us. And isn’t what we’re really talking about here sinning against the First Commandment? The Commandment says “The Lord is our God and we are not supposed to have false gods before Him.” We are talking about idolatry! And yet, how many of us do have false gods? And how many false gods do we have? Spiritually, our “things” are killing us. Or isn’t it really our attachments to our things that are killing our souls. We have a jealous God Who is unwilling to share us with all kinds of false gods. This is what our Gospel wants to talk to us about today.

My brothers and sisters, we live in one of the affluent areas of the wealthiest country on earth. We, all of us, desperately need to hear this Gospel. You don’t have to have a lot of money, you don’t even have to have a lot of things, for materialism and greed to seriously infect your life. This Gospel reminds us that this world and all its “things” are only temporary. We are just passing through this life, on our way home to what really lasts, and what really matters. It is a terrible mistake to get to thinking that the values and standards of what this world thinks is important, are going to be what’s going to be important in Heaven. It’s not going to be like this. Do you honestly believe that when you get to Heaven they are going to care what kind of car you drive? Oh, they may care, but it might not be in the way that you think. It’s not going to matter at all what brand of clothes you wear or where your house is located, or what kind of water you drink. We work, and we stress, and we worry, and we wonder what other people think about us and all these things, and all the while we neglect the things that are so much more important! Many people die every day with the wrong set of priorities. This Gospel is reminding us to make sure that before we die, we’ve got it straight.

The truth is that God created all things and all the potentiality of all things. Absolutely nothing that we possess or create is ours. Mark Twain once noted that “the world does not owe us a living; it owes us nothing; it was here first.” We are borrowing and using God’s gifts for just a little while, while we are in this world. They are not ours. We are stewards. The gifts, the goods, were meant by God to be used for all of God’s children, not just a few. The wealthy landowner in our Gospel got that wrong. He thought that he was the center of the universe. Man, did he get that wrong.

And that’s what really stinks.

God bless us help us to stay focused on Heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN!!!