Word to the Wise
Monday, October 19, 2015 - Monday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 4:20-25 and Luke 12:13-21]MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015 ST. JOHN DE BREBEUF, ST. ISAAC JOGUES, AND COMPANIONS [The North American Martyrs] "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist in possessions." [Luke] Each of the four gospels brings its own contribution to our understanding of Jesus. I tend to regard them each as a separate preaching. The Gospel of Luke, in addition to the "infancy narrative," has some wonderful parables that do not appear in the others. Examples would be The Rich Man and Lazarus, the Good Samaritan, and The Prodigal Son. Today's parable is just as vivid and speaks so much to our own social situation. It is known by the nickname, The Rich Fool. I think of this parable when I read of the latest merger of business giants or expansion of a mega-store. The ideas that "bigger" is better, and whatever increases the "bottom line" seem like the prayers of our economic secular religion. Ask anyone who flies a lot. The seats get smaller and one almost has to pay for the air one breathes. Life does not consist of possessions. I would recommend reading the Russian short story by Tolstoy (I think) called "How much land does a man need?" It is about a Russian peasant who hears of an offer of as much land as he can walk or run around in one day. He pushes himself to get around a great amount only to collapse and die at the finish line. The answer to the question is: "As much land as it takes to bury him." We would all do well to heed Jesus' warning about the dangers of wealth because of the attitudes that it can create. It is better to be rich in "what matters to God." AMEN Sent from my iPhone
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
98 ms
4
