Word to the Wise
Monday, October 20, 2014 - Monday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Eph 2:1-10 and Luke 12:13-21]"But 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?' Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God." [Luke]
As I write this, I am completed a retreat for Permanent Deacons and spouses of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee at a resort on the gulf coast. Many of these wonderful people are retirees who moved from another part of the United States to spend their retirement years in a warm sunny climate. Some of the deacons were ordained before they moved here, some were not. Others are natives of the area covered by the diocese. Their vocation, which I might add, is shared very much by their spouses who go through much of the formation program with them, is a sign of generosity, and is a contrast with some of the conspicuous wealth that I saw around me at the resort!
Jesus' parable of the Rich Fool is about a wealthy man whose solution to his growing wealth was not to share it but to hoard it! The parable might be summed up in a more modern phrase, "There's no pockets in a shroud!" If the rich man was concerned with "what matters to God," he would not have built bigger barns but rather used his wealth to help others. The Gospel of Luke will make this even clearer in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus [16:19-31].
It is no sin to plan well for one's "golden years" if one has the means to do so. The gospel is warning about a dependence on material consumption and conspicuous wealth that blinds or numbs the disciple to the desperate needs of those less economically fortunate. My hope is that those who live in the environs of the resort have thought about the Lord's words to the Rich Fool! AMEN