Monday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

The parable in today’s gospel reading is just one of the memorable parables that are unique to the gospel of Luke. The parable portrays a landowner who had enormous wealth. He represented a tiny proportion of the population of the time, most of whom would have lived at subsistence level or just below it. When this very rich man got suddenly richer because of an unexpectedly good harvest, he asked a good question, ‘What am I to do?’ However, the answer he gave to his own question left a lot to be desired. What he did was to go on a demolition and building spree, knocking down perfectly good barns to build bigger ones so as to store all this surplus crop he had. He felt that by storing all he possessed, his life would be secure. In reality, his life was built on sand. At the very moment when he was delighted with all he had stored, God called back his soul, and he died. He was rich in his own eyes, but desperately poor in God’s eyes because he hoarded grain that could have fed the masses of hungry people at the time. Jesus teaches us that we become truly rich, rich in God’s eyes, when we share with others from our own resources. The first reading also refers to someone who is rich, namely God. Paul says that God shows himself to be infinitely rich in grace through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus. God shows his riches by giving us the greatest gift he could give us, the gift of his Son. This was a gift that God gave to all, and like all gifts it was freely given; it did not have to be worked for or earned. Yet, Paul reminds us that God gave us this precious gift of his Son for a purpose, so that we would live the good life, a life that reflects the generous love of God and of God’s Son Jesus for all humanity.