18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) – August 3, 2025

St. Joseph – Conway Springs, KS

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23; Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13:-21

“The Rescue” In Thailand

Back in 2018 there was that very famous event of the rescue of those twelve boys and their coach from a cave in Thailand. Couple years ago, National Geographic released a documentary called “The Rescue”—which is incredibly done. Best documentary I’ve ever seen.

What happened, as you probably remember—the basics of it at least: there was this youth soccer team in Thailand, twelve boys and their coach. After practice one day they go to explore these caves. And it’s not like they’re doing dangerous things; they’re very well-known caves, it’s like a national park, people do this all the time—it’s what you do. 

So that day, when they’re about two and a half miles deep in this cave system … the monsoon season in Thailand decides to show up a few months early. And the caves flood. And these boys are trapped—two and a half miles deep in these caves. Luckily they’re able to find a place above the water level; they take shelter on a little shelf in the cave.

But here’s the thing: they are fully aware—fully aware that they were stuck. They had the self-awareness and self-honesty to acknowledge: “We’re trapped.” There was no way they were going to get themselves out of this situation. They knew that they were in a helpless situation. And all they could do, all they could do was to hope and to pray, to hope against hope, that someone would come to rescue them.

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Eventually, people on the outside figure out these boys are missing, trapped in these caves. And the Thai Navy Seals are called in. And they try to figure out a way to rescue them. But they quickly realize they are not equipped to do this. So they call in exactly who you would expect: an I.T. specialist and a retired fireman, both from “ol’ Blighty,” ol’ Great Britain—cave diving was just their hobby. Seriously. And yet they’re the two most-revered cave divers in the world. And overnight, these two guys became the most important people in the entire world.

When they got to Thailand they assessed the situation, and after a few days they wove their way underwater through this maze of caves and found the boys. It wasn’t hard for them; they’re good at what they do. But finding them was the easy part.

Once they got there, they realized that the only way to get the boys out was going to be to dive them out; underwater, through two and a half miles of this maze of caves. They were going to have to dive these boys, underwater, two and a half miles. They talked about drilling a hole through the mountain and pulling them out, you know, Chilean Miners style. But that was a no-go. And so they knew: “The only we can get them out is to dive them out.”

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The problem was this: if you’re going to try to get a bunch of fifteen year old boys to cave dive for the first time—it’s not going to go well! Just the anxiety from it! Just imagine putting on all of this scuba gear and then trying to crawl through and swim through all of these very tight, very claustrophobic passages—underwater. So how are they going to get them, move them underwater through these caves?

And so they do what you would naturally do (I know you were already thinking of it). They called up their cave diving friend who is also an anesthesiologist, and they say, “Hey! We need you to come knock these boys out so we can dive them out.” And that’s exactly what they did! The anesthesiologist gets to Thailand, dives back into the caves, and knocks the boys out, one by one. And one by one, with an airtight oxygen mask on, in an airtight body bag—they start taking the boys out of the caves, one by one. And it worked!

The documentary is incredible for a lot of reasons. One of which is because time and again it explicitly comes back to one theme: generosity, graciousness. It comes back time and again to point out that all of this was possible (it was only possible!) because no one was there keeping track of bills, no one was worried about money, it was all based on generosity. One Navy SEAL gave his life. People from all over the world came to help. It was all possible because of the pure generosity of people, the graciousness of people, even to the point of risking their lives, giving their lives.

Poverty Gives Space for Hope, for Entrusting Ourselves to Another

And think: there in that cave, the boys were acutely aware of their need, their absolute “poverty”—they were incapable of doing anything to help themselves. They lacked the ability to rescue themselves. All they could do was hope and pray that someone would rescue them. In this situation, they were acutely aware of their need for an other and their inability to rescue themselves.

And think about it! They were sitting on a little shelf in these caves—for almost ten days, just sitting in this cave—when all of a sudden two guys show up and offer them freedom, life. And without hesitating for a moment, they are willing to entrust their entire lives to them.

And think! How ridiculous would it have been if when those divers arrived they found the boys fighting over money, or talking about their schemes to make a bunch of money there in the cave?How ridiculous would it have been if they found the boys digging in the caves trying to make the cave bigger, trying to make it a nice place to live? That would have been ridiculous.

No. There in the cave, there in their absolute poverty—and again, not just material poverty: their poverty of being 100% aware of their inability to give themselves anything; their poverty of knowing that they could not even guarantee themselves one more day of life; their poverty of literally using up the oxygen supply in this small cave—there in their absolute poverty, their only chance was for someone to come. And when the divers arrived, when the divers were present, their hope was ignited. The very presence of those divers gave them hope; hope to the point that they were willing to entrust their entire lives to them! “Let me get this right: you want to put me in a wetsuit, drug me up and knock me out, put an oxygen mask on me, put me in a body bag, and then swim me two and a half miles underwater? Sounds great!” In their absolute poverty, they abandoned everything for the promise of freedom, of life, a newness of life.

“Quid Animo Satis?”

Now, if you’re sitting there thinking, “Dang, Fr. Michael, we get it: you really like this documentary”—there is a point!

Our first reading—it’s a very famous one from the book of Ecclesiastes. And the author of this book identifies himself as “David’s son, Qoheleth, King of Jerusalem”—who is? Solomon. Exactly. Solomon, King of Jerusalem, was a person who had experienced the height of worldly accomplishments; he had it all! He was rich beyond belief, everything you could ask for! And in this book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is writing to a confused and disoriented generation—people who have really gotten their priorities mixed up and have really lost sight of the bigger picture—and he tells them, “Learn from my experience! Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” “Vanity of vanities”—that word in Hebrew just means vapor, or wind; it can also mean a bubble. Here is Solomon, looking back on his own life, and telling us, “I had it all. And what I can tell you is that the world’s promises are like vapor, wind, bubbles: here one second and gone the next!” Solomon, a man with more money than he knew what to do with, more pleasure at his disposal than anyone, more power than anyone in Israel ever had—and what does he say about it? “It’s empty. It doesn’t last.”

Jesus in our Gospel today, he points out the same thing! “Though one may be rich, one’s life doesn’t consist of possessions.” And he tells that beautiful parable about building bigger barns to try to store up and attain more and more wealth, and reaches the point of saying, “You fool! What happens if you die tonight? What’s going to be the point of living your entire life focused on money? What will you be left with?”

The question Jesus is driving at it: what truly satisfies us? “Quid animo satis?” What satisfies our soul, our life, our heart? This man comes to Jesus hoping he will tell his brother to share the inheritance with him. And Jesus immediately points out: “Is money really going to satisfy you?” He has this man do some “soul searching,” some serious reflection, and asks, “Is money going to respond to your deepest need? If you die tonight, is knowing you have a lot of money going to even matter to you?” Solomon is shouting at us: “Vanity of vanities! I had all of that, and let me tell you: it’s not worth it! It doesn’t satisfy.”

Commitment to Surrender, to Follow: The Path to the Fullness of Life

For some of us, money is what we’re going after: money, or a better house, our dream car, that next raise. For others, is pleasures: relationships, or vacations, good times, parties, binging Netflix. Some of us are really concerned about “being someone”: we want to be known for some accomplishment, to be in charge, to be respected, important, influential. A lot of things!

But the reflection we need to make is this: does this satisfy? Play it out in your head, start playing everything out, imagine you achieve it all: does this satisfy? And also keep in mind: what if tomorrow it all comes to a crashing halt? What if tonight your life is demanded of you?

What does your soul, your heart, your life—what truly satisfies? Quid animo satis? So often we are going to dream up what we think will satisfy us, we will allow the world to tell us what will satisfy and fulfill us. But what will truly satisfy? What do we truly need?

Trapped in a cave in Thailand, those twelve boys and their coach were not worried about money, or a good time, or who was the most influential. They were completely aware of their need, their poverty, their need to be rescued. Day and night they waited for a response to that need. And one day, it arrived—and they abandoned everything they had to follow it. There was a presence, an undeniable presence that arrived with a promise: “I can take you to safety. I can rescue you.” But that promise came with a condition, “You will need to entrust your entire life to me.”

For us—we need to clue in on our poverty. Typically, we are worried about all of these other things. But for those of us conscious of our poverty, conscious of the position that we find ourselves in, conscious that we cannot even guarantee ourselves one more day of life, conscious that we are incapable of going out and providing for ourselves what will truly satisfy our soul, our heart, our life—conscious of our own poverty, our own need, we await a response.

The “point” of Christianity, the beginning of Christianity is that someone arrived, some Jesus guy from Nazareth arrived, and said, promised, “I can respond to that need. I can rescue you. I am the way.” But that promise came with a condition, “Follow me. Surrender to me. Entrust your entire life to me.” In an act of sheer generosity, sheer graciousness—without any regard for what it would cost him, that it would cost him his life—in sheer graciousness he gave everything to us.

Friends: the way to the fullness of life that you seek, the way out of the “blah” that you so often find yourself in, the way to the fullness of life—it’s not by doubling down on trying to make more money or buying a better house or car, having a better time and going on more vacations and parties, gaining status and influence and power. It is only found in surrendering, entrusting your life to the only One that promises to satisfy and fulfill.

Today, instead of just sitting here in Mass for the thousandth time in your life, I want this (and every Mass) to be a time to entrust your life to Jesus Christ once again. Call yourself out for the things you think will satisfy—money, pleasures, power, honors, whatever it is—and then recognize what is being offered to you here in the Mass. Here, Jesus is present. And his presence bears a promise: “I can give you what this world is incapable of giving you. Follow me. Entrust your life to me. I can satisfy.”