ECCLESIASTES 1: 2, 2:21-23
PSALM 89: 3-6, 12-14, 17 R. v. 1
COLOSSIANS 3: 1-5, 9-11
LUKE 12: 13-21
This Gospel story would have been a great challenge to Jesus’ listeners. For the understanding of the time is that wealth was a sign of God’s blessings. In fact, there are Christian groups who still have this understanding: that God will bless the person who has faith with success and wealth.
A man comes to Jesus to ask him to be an arbitrator between him and his brother. After all, he would say that this is only just, and that is what Jesus should agree to.
But Jesus sees in this, the grave danger we open ourselves to when we seek the things of the earth before all else. The consequences is petty quarrels, broken relationships, hatred, conflict, and sometimes even physical death.
Our readings today speak of the wisdom of seeking first the things of heaven, the things of God. God has blessed us with so many things, but the best of all blessings and the one that last forever, is love. And love does not come through wealth but through relationships. And the most important relationship is that with God.
The happiest person is not the one who is the richest in the world but the one who knows that he / she is loved, especially where he / she knows God’s love for them. Jesus was the happiest human who walked on this earth because he knew the Father’s love for him and shared that love with others.
Contrast that with the problem of quarrels between peoples because of money and property.
In all that is going on there, it is love that loses out.
Today’s Gospel story would be a great challenge to us too. I guess all of us would like a bit more too in life. Something for a rainy day and for things we would like to have.
There is no problem with that so long as it doesn’t draw us away from God.
Jesus in today’s Gospel is telling us to seek right relationship with God and neighbor. This is what matters most in life. And wealth and the things of the world can be an obstacle and not a help. But with a right relationship with God and neighbour, wealth is seen differently in our life.
Wealth will not last but God’s love will last forever. Let us reflect on how well we know God’s love for us. Let us seek to know God’s love for us.
The yardstick of this and our happiness is how we come to share our love for others.
To know God is to love God.
To love God is to follow God
To follow God is to make his love known through our lives.
Merredin Catholic Parish 