Parable of the Rich Fool

Parable of the Rich Fool

Lk 12: 13  - 21

18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Introduction

In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks about greed. Greed is one of the seven capital sins. Jesus warns us to be on guard against all for forms of greed as it may give us a false sense of security.

The Gospel

One day, Jesus was asked by someone in the crowd to become the arbiter of his brother’s inheritance. Jesus replied: “ Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then Jesus 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 Jesus began to tell 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 store 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 the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God. “

Reflection

Today’s reading is about greed. Greed is the inordinate desire to possess  something of value which in this reading is grain and other goods. At the time of Jesus, grain was the lifeblood of people; hence its great value especially in regions often frequented by long droughts.

Jesus here highlights what he means by greed or the “inordinate” desire to possess. The word ‘inordinate’ comes close to mean something that is over and above what is necessary; in fact, it borders to something almost irrational. The tearing down of the man’s barns was prompted by his great harvest. His harvest was so great that he didn’t know what to do with it. There was simply too much of it and the man wanted to keep this huge harvest for himself.

What Jesus wants to point out here is that this superabundance gave the man a sense of security. But for Jesus, this new found security was only an illusion since God demanded from him his life that very night. Moreover, God himself points out the futility of it all by asking the man, “ …and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” In the end, what was of great value became worthless in death; what seemed to have given him a sense of security didn’t protect him from life’s fragility.

Our reading does not forbid us to acquire goods or wealth. But our reading warns us of greed; and in fact, Jesus qualifies greed by saying: “ greed in all its forms.”

The heart can be tricky because it has the tendency to covet and amass as much as it wants to.  It wants to possess and acquire without limitations. The heart’s inordinate desire to covet and possess is implied in the ten commandments where the Lord explicitly commands us not to covet our neighbor’s goods and not to steal what is not ours, thus clearly setting the limits of what we can have and what we cannot have.  

Our inordinate desire to possess is aggravated by the fact that our world holds so much esteem for those who have incredible amounts of riches and wealth. Our world seems to define us by what we have and possess; the more we have, the greater is our personal worth in the eyes of many in society.

But the Lord puts all riches and wealth at a different perspective. Wealth becomes worthless in death and doesn’t guarantee us security given the fragility of life.

Greed is that insatiable drive to have more of what we perceive is valuable. Because greed is insatiable, it will never arrive at a saturation point; greed will always drive us to be wanting. It is this insatiability that becomes the problem which renders one to be discontented and unhappy and drives one to have and possess more at any cost!   

Today, we pray to the Lord to deliver us from greed and that he may grant us a heart that is generous and giving, trusting and secure only in the power of the Lord and not in the power of riches.

Prayer

Lord, just like everyone else, I too wish to be rich; rich enough so I could provide for my needs and the needs of all those who depend on me. Guard me from greed so that I may be content with what I honestly work for. Grant me a generous heart so that I may learn to share my blessings to those who have less in life. Amen.

“Do not fear when a man becomes rich,
    when the wealth of his house grows great.
 At his death he will not take along anything,
    his glory will not go down after him.”  - Psalm 49: 17 - 18