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A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke (12:13-21)
At that time, one of the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, I told my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator between you?”
And he said to them, “Take heed and be on your guard against every form of coveteousness. For even if a man has plenty, his life does not consist of his possessions.”
Then he put forward a parable to them:
“A certain rich man’s land yielded an abundant crop. And he began to calculate, saying, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store the crops.’ Then he said to himself, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. Then I will say to myself, ‘My soul, you have goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and feast happily.’
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This night your soul will be required of you, and whose will be the things you have prepared?’
So it is with someone who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection: For even if a man has plenty, his life does not consist of his possessions.
When the gaze turns away from true wealth, conflicts over material goods provoke the breakdown of the unity desired by God. One man asks Jesus to intervene on his behalf so that his brother can share the inheritance with him. Jesus’ response is clear: He is not a judge or an arbitrator between them. What he does do is offer a lesson, lay down a principle that governs human conduct in relation to material goods.
“Beware of every kind of coveteousness.” God knows that we need material things for our survival. Greed is a deformation of the human being that results in hoarding, storing up for oneself, forgetting and disrespecting the rights of others over the goods of the earth. The parable is enlightening. Security is not given by material goods, although it may seem untrue, but by sharing with others. This is what we are told at the end: “So it is with the one who stores up for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Who will own all that we have accumulated? This is a good question, because it questions the criteria that govern our actions. We have almost everything and we pay little attention to those who are at our doors, waiting for a gesture to help them in their desolation. This gesture, made real by sharing what we have, is described by Jesus as “being rich for God.”
The greatest temptation of our day is to think that we can do nothing to solve the problems that people around us suffer. We need to ask ourselves: Jesus enriches us all with his poverty. What can I do for others? What do I want to do for them?
Action for The Day:
Do not waste your fortune in vain. To have a house, honors, freedom, health. All this has been entrusted to us by God to put it at the service of those who are less fortunate than us. Jesus said, “whatever you do to the least of these my brothers, you do to me.” So the only thing that can make us sad is to offend our God by our selfishness or my lack of charity towards others. Loving the poor, hurting one another, we will hurt God. It is God to whom it belongs to give and return. To share, then, what we have received, even our own lives.
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