In the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time in
Year C, while on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus is confronted with a man who wants
Him to get the man’s brother to share his inheritance with him. Jesus reacts by oddly saying he is not the
man’s judge. Why is this odd? Well Jesus is everyone’s judge. Jesus goes on to tell those on pilgrimage a
parable about a foolish rich man. The
homilists below will explain the parable, but what I can’t come to a conclusion
to is whether the moral of the parable is directed at the man in the crowd
wanting his share of his inheritance, at his brother who has hoarded the inheritance,
or at both.
Someone in the crowd
said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my
brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed
me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the
crowd,
“Take care to guard
against all greed,
for though one may be
rich,
one’s life does not
consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a
parable.
“There was a rich man
whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself,
‘What shall I do,
for I do not have
space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is
what I shall do:
I shall tear down my
barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store
all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to
myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good
things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be
merry!”’
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
all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in
what matters to God.”
~Lk 12:13-21
Fr. Tim Peters provides
goes into the Gospel passage in great detail.
So do you own your car or does your car own you? Do you go out and rent storage space? Storage space seems to be the perfect analogy to increasing barn space. Are you filling your space with earthly goods or with God’s treasures? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I thought this was an
excellent pastoral homily by a new homilist to my blog, Archbishop Edward Weisenburger, newly installed in the Archdiocese of Detroit.
His Excellency, the
Archbishop has quite a presence at the ambo.
So much is packed into that six minute homily. Still no one offers a thought on who Jesus is
directing His parable. The easy answer is both.
Sunday Meditation: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one
may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
John Michael Talbot offers us a hymn
performed live, “Only in God.”
My stronghold my Savior
I shall not be afraid at all
My stronghold my Savior
I shall not be moved
Only in God is my soul at rest
In Him comes my salvation
