OUR DAILY VITAMIN FOR THE SOUL... This Sunday Gospel, Aug 4. Parable of the Rich Fool Lk 12:13-21 13Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” 14He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” 15Then 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.” 16Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. 17He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ 18And 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 19and 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!” ’ 20But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ 21Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” Reflection: "Take care to guard against all greed." Jesus gives this as the lesson of the parable of the rich man who has a bountiful harvest. He adds, “Though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” It is not bad to work for a living, to earn money and gain possessions. Money and possessions are good as servants, but they are tyrannical as masters. Jesus tells his disciples that they cannot serve God and mammon (money). Once money and possessions take hold of our hearts—once they become not our possessions but our possessors—then we forget the most important things in life: love of God and fellow men and women. This is why God calls the rich man “You fool!” (tanga or gago in Pilipino). In making his plans for the future, the rich man thinks only of himself, his storage place for the grain, his food and drink. He has no place for God and his neighbor. He has forgotten the most important thing to really live—love of God and neighbor. Many people who live in plush subdivisions, are driven in luxury cars, and eat in five-star hotels while earning oodles and oodles of money and buying all the things they want, may end up being called “tanga” or “gago” by God. Remember the words of Jesus: “Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” What kind of treasure do you store up for yourself in this life and in view of eternal life? (365 Days with the Lord)
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 02:20:31 +0000
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