Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
Today’s gospel reading from Luke is one that ought to be familiar to us. The rich man Jesus describes in his parable describes a very human tendency. When we have an abundance of wealth, we feel we can relax and not worry, just “rest, eat, drink, and be merry!” (Lk 12:19). Indeed, part of the human condition is to worry about what lies ahead, and we feel comfort when we think we are secure, with all of our needs and desires met. But what Jesus points out is that this is an ephemeral wealth. A storehouse of grain is great when one is still walking the earth. But, like money, you can’t take it with you when you die. Hence Jesus suggests that his listeners would be better to store up treasures in heaven, rather than on earth. This treasure in heaven is what matters to God, and, so also, to us. The gospel passage hence calls us to a difficult task. It is challenging to shift our focus from earth to heaven when it is the earth we seem to occupy. In some sense, we have to think about our future: how to feed our family, how to pay for children’s education, how to plan for retirement, and so on. But in the midst of all these concerns, we might lose sight of our true end: eternal life with God. It is not wrong or sinful to think about what’s for dinner or how to pay the bills, but it is wrong and sinful to focus exclusively on these earthly concerns. When we do this, we lose sight of the larger story of our salvation in and through Jesus Christ.
Today’s first reading from Ephesians provides a snippet of this larger story. Paul notes the fallenness of humanity; all were sinful. Paul even describes humanity as “dead” because of this tendency to live solely according to earthly concerns. In contrast to this deadness and sinfulness, God brought life through Jesus, raising us up with him and hence defeating death. Paul uses powerful descriptors for God’s actions here: kindness, great love, gift, and grace. In this we recognize true wealth. God is “rich in mercy,” showing us the “immeasurable riches of his grace” (Eph 2:4, 7).
Our real wealth is a participation in this wealth of God, the acceptance of God’s kindness, great love, gift, grace, and mercy that comes to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The psalm response reiterates this: “The Lord made us, we belong to him” (Ps. 100:3b). Inasmuch as we recognize ourselves as God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus, we open ourselves to the possibility of living in Christ (Eph 2:10) and hence living forever with the Triune God.
The readings today hence call us to look heavenward and let our lives on earth be transformed in light of our final destination. We rejoice in the salvation that has been given us through Jesus and recognize this as our real and true wealth on earth. Today, in the midst of all of our earthly concerns and anxieties, let us try to refocus, turning our attention toward receiving the wealth that is freely given to us by our loving God. We praise God and thank God for his generosity to us!
- Maria Morrow