Posted on 10/17/2005 9:47:16 AM PDT by Salvation
LOl!
nenw book.
Oops
new book.
Romans 4:20-25 / Lk 12:13-21 Today's gospel raises a perennial human question: how much is enough? And the answer as we usually feel it, even if we don't say it, is 'just a little bit more.' It's strange how that answer can be so consistent at every economic level: What would you like? What do you need? Just a little bit more. And what does that tell us? That there will never be enough to fill us full, as long as we look in the wrong places. The only one who can ever fill us full is the Lord, who made us for himself and who made our hearts to be satisfied by no one and no thing less than himself. The rich man in the gospel was caught in that trap. His definition of success was very simply 'more.' So, when the harvest exceeded all his expectations, his response was to tear down his barns and build bigger ones to hold 'more.' On the one hand that seems so logical, but on the other, why tear down the barns, why not share the excess which he obviously didn't need and certainly hadn't expected? This man was known as rich, but in fact he was poor, because he didn't know how to make the most of God's gifts. He didn't know that the greatest joy in having something is in being able to share it or even give it away. That's God-like joy, and it's the joy that God wants us to grow accustomed to now, because that kind of sharing of life is what heaven is all about. |
Monday, October 17, 2005 Meditation Luke 12:13-21 Jesus had just spoken at length to the crowd about essential matters of belief: knowing that we are beloved of the Father and have great worth in his eyes, and trusting our lives to the care and guidance of the Holy Spirit. And just then, someone interrupts. Tell my brother to share with me, he demands. Its a wonder Jesus didnt tear his hair out sometimes! Aside from its rudeness, the interruption portrays for us the kind of distractions that only keep us impoverished. Jesus taught that it is not lack of material possessions that makes us poor. Rather, preoccupation with what and how much we haveand how to get more of itimpoverishes us. Why? Because it moves us to disregard the things that matter to God. It shifts our thoughts and efforts from serving the Creator and makes us slaves to created things instead. Jesus doesnt say material possessions are bad or to be despised. He is clear, however, that ones life does not consist in the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15). What are the things that matter to God? First, that we would know personally his love for us. He created us out of love, and he loves us always. He will always take care of us because we matter to him (Luke 12:7,24,30-31). Jesus died and was raised from the dead that we might experience and share in Gods life through his Holy Spirit. Confident in his love for us, we love and serve him by loving and serving others. These are the things that matter to God (Matthew 22:36-39). We can steep ourselves in these riches! Every prayer time, we can tell God how much we love him. Better still, we can open our hearts and minds to receive his love. Every word of Scripture can become a treasure illustrating Gods immeasurable love for us and how we can respond to that love. Psalms and hymns and worshipful music throughout our day can draw us back to him, even if we listen for just a few minutes. Reading the lives of the saints or spiritual books, attending daily Massthrough all these ways, we can soak ourselves in the things that matter, storing up treasure that will last (Luke 12:33). Father, help me to keep focused on you today. Show me how to store up riches in heaven. I trust you to care for me and provide for me. Romans 4:20-25; (Psalm) Luke 1:69-75 |
Lk 12:13-21 | ||
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# | Douay-Rheims | Vulgate |
13 | And one of the multitude said to him: Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. | ait autem quidam ei de turba magister dic fratri meo ut dividat mecum hereditatem |
14 | But he said to him: Man, who hath appointed me judge or divider over you? | at ille dixit ei homo quis me constituit iudicem aut divisorem super vos |
15 | And he said to them: Take heed and beware of all covetousness: for a man's life doth not consist in the abundance of things which he possesseth. | dixitque ad illos videte et cavete ab omni avaritia quia non in abundantia cuiusquam vita eius est ex his quae possidet |
16 | And he spoke a similitude to them, saying: The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. | dixit autem similitudinem ad illos dicens hominis cuiusdam divitis uberes fructus ager adtulit |
17 | And he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? | et cogitabat intra se dicens quid faciam quod non habeo quo congregem fructus meos |
18 | And he said: This will I do: I will pull down my barns and will build greater: and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me and my goods. | et dixit hoc faciam destruam horrea mea et maiora faciam et illuc congregabo omnia quae nata sunt mihi et bona mea |
19 | And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy rest: eat, drink, make good cheer. | et dicam animae meae anima habes multa bona posita in annos plurimos requiesce comede bibe epulare |
20 | But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee. And whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? | dixit autem illi Deus stulte hac nocte animam tuam repetunt a te quae autem parasti cuius erunt |
21 | So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. | sic est qui sibi thesaurizat et non est in Deum dives |
The Rich Fool
Rembrandt Van Rijn
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October 17, 2005 Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading (Romans 4:20-25) Gospel (St. Luke 12:13-21)
Our Lord tells us in the Gospel reading that we have to guard against all forms of greed. Now this is an American problem. Obviously, it is a human problem, but an American one in a very specific way because there is so much materialism all around us and what we tend to do as Americans is to judge ourselves according to others by how much we have. That really is the wrong thing. It is an interesting point because it is actually one of the Planned Parenthood ways of trying to present things: If you have a number of children, you are only going to have a little bit of stuff and you are going to be poor and isnt this going to be a rotten way to live; but if you only have one or two kids, you are going to have lots of money and you will have more material things and then life will be a whole lot easier for you. Well, it is interesting that in Scripture children are considered to be the riches and the blessing that God has given. In America, money is what seems to be the blessing. So we seem to have ourselves completely opposite of what God Himself has presented.
It is not that the money itself is something evil; as Saint Paul makes clear, it is love of money that is the root of all evil; it is that greed. This is something that as we get older especially we need to watch for. There is the old saying that lust is the sin of the young and greed is the sin of the elderly. We just simply shift our selfishness is really all that it comes down to. It is a matter of what form it is going to take, but it is all focused on the self. At the end of the Gospel reading, Jesus says, This is the way it will be for the man who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God. That, again, is what we have to make sure we are looking at. How much are we focused on ourselves? How much are we focused on God? The Lord makes clear to us that we have to store up treasure in heaven, not treasure on earth. It is all going to be left behind anyway, so what good is it going to do? Are we really happier because we have more things?
I always chuckle when I drive past these places that are springing up everywhere: storage places. You can rent a storage place and you can put all the things that you have accumulated because they do not all fit into your house, your garage, your basement, your shed, and every place else that you have to store your things. Now you can rent a garage specifically to store the overflow of all of your things. For what? You do not even look at them because they are stuffed away miles from your house. We are worse than squirrels burying things all over creation to see if they can come back and find them later. What good is it? What has it done to make anybody happy? It does not.
Saint Paul tells us that what was credited to Abraham as righteousness is also meant for us, and it has to do with our faith in God; not our faith in all of our materialism, not our faith in money, but our faith in God. There is no one to whom it has been credited as righteousness because they have accumulated more of the things of the world. And there is absolutely no one to whom it is credited as righteousness because they are selfish. That is exactly the opposite of charity, and we are created for the purpose of charity, for love.
So when we see what our society is presentingselfishness and materialism and greedwe see that this is diametrically opposed to everything that God is about because He is about charity. He is about everything that is opposite of what is selfish. He wants us to have true freedom, and true freedom means to be free of all of the things that the world is offering. One of the things the saints tell us, in case we get worried about what we are going to do without all our junk, is that when you are detached from everything then you have everything because you have God, and absolutely everything exists within God. Nothing exists unless it exists within Him; therefore, everything is yours because you were willing to let go of everything, and God will provide it all for you.
As we look at that, we ask ourselves: Do we have the faith of Abraham who believed that the One Who made the promise was also able to carry it through? Do we really believe in God and in everything that He has promised? This is where it is not enough just to have that generic belief that God exists. We have to put it into practice, we have to pray for detachment, we have to work at getting rid of all of our selfishness and all of our greed, and not rent more storage space so we can store up treasure on earth, but we have to make sure that the real storehouse is the soul and that we are storing up for ourselves treasure in heaven.
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.
From: Romans 4:20-25
The Example of Abraham (Continuation)
From: Luke 12:13-21
Parable of the Rich Fool
I just wanted to pass on a hot tip on a good read!
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