We are tempted to think that having large amounts of money and possessions stored up will make us secure.
Every act of love adds to our heavenly capital.

Had the rich man seen his abundant harvest as grace and gift, he would have had the largeness of heart to share it with others.

What he needed was not larger barns, but a larger heart.

 

St. John of Capistrano, priest

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Romans 4:20-25

He did not doubt,

Nor did he distrust the promise of God, and, by being strong in faith, he gave glory to God: he was convinced that He who had given the promise had power to fulfill it.

 

This was taken into account for him to attain righteousness. This was taken into account: these words of Scripture are not only for him, but for us, too, because we believe in him, who raised Jesus, our Lord, from among the dead, he, who was delivered for our sins, and raised to life, for us to receive true righteousness.

 

Lk 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊      

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd spoke to Jesus, "Master, tell my brother to share with me the family inheritance." He replied, "My friend, who has appointed me as your judge or your attorney?" Then Jesus said to the people, "Be on your guard and avoid every kind of greed, for even though you have many possessions, it is not that which gives you life."

 

And Jesus continued, "There was a rich man, and his land had produced a good harvest. He thought, 'What shall I do, for I am short of room to store my harvest? Alright, I know what I shall do: I will pull down my barns and I will build bigger ones, to store all this grain, which is my wealth. Then I will say to myself: My friend, you have a lot of good things put by for many years.

 

Rest, eat, drink and enjoy yourself. But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you. Tell me, who shall get all you have put aside?' This is the lot of the one who stores up riches for himself and is not wealthy in the eyes of God."

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"Jesus calls us to re-evaluate our relationship with possessions." 

Dealing with clutter has become big business. Companies offer everything from decluttering services to storage and organizing solutions. Clutter is actually a new problem. For most of history, the problem was having too little, not too much. Many of our brothers and sisters around the world today still do not have the food, shelter, and other basics they need to live a dignified life.

 

In his parable about the rich man, Jesus calls us to re-evaluate our relationship with our possessions. Do we own them or do they own us? We can rely more on our possessions than on the people in our lives or even on God! In fact, we can use our possessions to wall ourselves off from other people.

 

If we have everything we need and more, we can fool ourselves into believing that we don't need God or others. But our possessions do not have eternal value. While they are useful while we are here on earth, we should set our hearts on the things of heaven.