Jesus, in today’s Gospel, a man approaches You and asks for justice. He asks that his brother “share the inheritance with me.” Rather than take action in the way that he would expect, You caution Your listener: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions” (Lk 12:15). When I look at the first reading, I find Your words echo in a similar vein when it says, “All things are vanity!” (Ecc. 1:2). Everything is passing away.
Yet even then, I can become lost in the needs of today. How anxious I can become! How lost I can become in myself. When I look at the Gospel, I notice the thread continues. I realize that the rich man in the parable harkens back to himself incessantly. He too becomes lost in self. He says, “What shall I do for I do not have space to store my harvest? . . . 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” (Ibid., 12:17-19) That is a lot of first person! Where is everyone else? Where’s God in the picture? Me, myself, and I are the only characters to be found.
Holding Too Tightly
St. Augustine says that the foolish man here focused not so much on the covetousness of goods but rather on the covetousness of self. He held on to his own life. And for that mistake, God called him a fool: “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong” (Ibid., 12:20). When time was up, the man’s soul had nothing to offer. Mother Teresa said that You will not ask how much I have done, but how much I have loved. It is love that he missed, and love that I can miss when I remain in the cycle of me, myself, and I.
I Will Have Lived
Lord, time will be up very soon. You will ask for an account because my life is Yours — Yours on borrowed time. But where do I begin? “I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain when it will end, nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I am following your will does not mean that I actually am doing so” (Merton Prayer). Look at me that I may love You. Call me so that I may see You. And then, and only then, I will have lived life. I will have lived a full life. I will have lived a life because You — because You looked at me and said, “I love you.”
[Readings: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21]
“You will ask for an account of my life because my life is Yours…” A very powerful line! Thank you for the beautiful reflection!