Gospel: Lk 12: 13 – 21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom they will belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”
Homily
What am I to do? This is a question that all of us ask from time to time. It is a question asked when we are placed before a dilemma or when there seems to be no escape from a problem that may have dire consequences for us. It is a question that many of you parents may have asked when the latest SEA results were released. It is the question that parents ask when they do not have the wherewithal to get food or medical care for their children. It can be a sign of terrible anguish. It can also be a sign of tremendous greed.
In the gospel story which we have for our meditation this weekend, Jesus presents us with a parable in which the protagonist, a rich man with a bountiful harvest, asks the question; what shall I do?
For any good Jew the answer should have been obvious. The book of Deuteronomy outlines the responsibility of those who have towards those who do not have. Deuteronomy 15:11says: “Of course there will never cease to be poor in the land, I command you therefore. Always be open handed with your brother and with anyone in your country who is in need and poor.”
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The rich man of the Gospel is clearly a landowner, a minuscule minority in Jesus’ world. He appears to live on his land and share in the work of the land. When he realizes the magnitude of his crops, his answer to the question “what shall I do?” is to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. But his “future planning” is condemned by God for he forgets the words of Deuteronomy; he forgets his responsibility to the poor in the land he plans to “Relax, eat, drink, and be merry” Added to that because of his larger barns, in the lean years people will come to him to borrow grain and he will be able to charge exorbitant prices thus further enriching himself. This man had evidently forgotten the core of Jewish religion, i.e. to love God above all things and one’s neighbour as oneself.
This man is called a fool by God; You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom they will belong?’ Jesus then adds a warning for us “Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”
For us the disciples of Jesus, the core of Christian living is to love God above all things and the neighbour as Christ has loved us, but like the foolish man in the Gospel passage, we are also prone to forget and this for a variety of causes, causes which may be classified as personal, societal or ethnic. Whatever the classification may be these causes often lead us to forget the core values of Christianity and the words of God to the foolish man apply to us; “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom they will belong?”
While in our worldly eyes people who live saintly lives may be considered fools, in the eyes of God they are not. A look at their motivations will show us that they did everything which they did because they sought to “love God above all things and the neighbour as Christ has loved us.” All were willing to live and to give their lives for what they considered higher values. From the apostles down to the present day saints like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Mons Romero of El Salvador, this has remained constant. We thank God for their witness!
What a sad day it would be for us however if we are called fools by God because of our inordinate love of money or pleasure or power, things which are capable of coarsening our hearts against higher values.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, you remind us this weekend of our need to make ourselves rich in the things which matter to You. As we admire men and women of our time and of all ages who made the things which matter to You the priority of their lives, Help us to resist the temptation to replace the things which matter to You with things which have no power to save and which we will have to leave behind when You call us to Yourself. We make this prayer through Your Son, Jesus and the intercession of Mary, our Mother. Amen
