Dear friends, the gospel reading is very interesting and calls for serious reflection so that we do not go the way of the rich fool. We have strong desires to be rich, which is good, but sometimes it can lead one astray especially when people perceive and pursue wealth as everything. It leads them to a misplacement of priority and inordinate quest for materialism because the love of having increases by having. And when this happens, they put God aside and think that their future is now assured. But the truth is there is no security in materialism. It can vanish at any time, at any disaster. It cannot buy life without end. At end of life, everything we own becomes useless to us. We shall then abandon them to others who do not know the value and energy we have put in acquiring the wealth while alive.
Inheritance: Major Cause of Division in Families
It is the issue of inheritance that made the young man in the gospel invite Jesus to advise their family. He said to him: ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance’ (Mt 12:13). He said this because his brother must have seized the inheritance of the family alone, and this is greed and avarice. It is still the problem everywhere and has caused a lot of divisions in most families. It is even more in African culture, where often the eldest son wants to inherit the property of their parents alone as the writing of wills is uncommon. He plans it ahead of the departure of parents and creates a lot of problems as soon as the last of their parents dies. Most elderly sons in Africa treat others as if they were born alone by their parents. They use the influence of culture to suppress siblings and put them down. They exclude women and ask them to go back to their husband’s homes even though in most cases it is the women who have cared for their deceased parents. And, they do this to put everyone off so as to not share the inheritance of their parents. This is serious injustice, but unfortunately, it is the situation in most families. No wonder the young man in the gospel who suffered this injustice decided to invite Jesus to intervene.
The Response of Jesus
Jesus heard the complaint of the young man but was cautious not to enter into it because inheritance and other material things are transitory. He cared more of the souls of the crowd. That’s the reason he asked the young man thus: ‘who made him the judge or the arbitrator of his claims?’. However, he did turn to the crowd to address the issue of avarice which is the root cause of the problem of inheritance and family division. He warned them: ‘watch and be on your guard against the avarice of any kind, for the man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs’ (Mt 12:14) and this is the major message of the gospel. Avarice is a huge vice and must be weeded out of our lives if we want to be close to God. This is because it makes you live below human rationale and reduces you to a slave of materialism instead of using material things in service of God and humanity. It makes you lose the sense of consideration and compassion for others and increases the life of selfishness in you. It reduces one to nothingness and makes one enthrone wealth as his or her god without due respect to God. This is what Jesus condemns and that’s why he warned the crowd.
The Parable of the Rich Fool
Jesus told the parable of the rich fool to demonstrate the fate of greedy people who are not content with what they have. They want to have more and store them for tomorrow while they are not sure of today. They act as if they have the control of their life in their hands. We need to learn not only from the parable but from the experiences we have gathered in life. We must have witnessed properties that have existed for more than two hundred years or even more. Where are the people who had owed them? They have gone! They are no more. We shall one day join them. And we shall not be going with all the ‘hoards and sweats’ of ours. We should be careful with life and think more of its eternity. And, we should shun greed and avarice and use our wealth to put smiles on the faces of others while trusting more than ever in God. This is the only way to store up treasures for ourselves in heaven.
Peace be with you!
