READING OF THE DAY
EPH 2:1-10
Brothers and sisters:
You were dead in your transgressions and sins
in which you once lived following the age of this world,
following the ruler of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient.
All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh,
following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses,
and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.
But God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
LK 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he 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 he told 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 stored 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.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
“This Gospel passage begins with an inheritance and ends at the gates of another inheritance”, Francis explained, referring to the day’s reading from the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 12:13-21). Jesus “clearly warns: ‘Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”’. Jesus then goes on to tell the parable of “a rich man who finds himself before the abundance of his harvest and does not know what to do”. But “two actions come to his mind: to expand and to extend”. In other words, the Pope said, he decides “to expand the storage barns and in his dreams, [thus] extend his life: ‘so I will be at ease’, but hands off the harvest; everything must be stored because that money is his god”, the Holy Father continued.
“He expands in order to make more room for his god and he lengthens his life to worship that god in his fantasy: he is a slave of that, isn’t he? He does not know completion”, Pope Francis stressed. Jesus continues his parable saying that the man “continued to gather more goods, more goods and more goods until the point of nausea”. Therefore, the Holy Father asked, “how does this man reason?”. Luke’s passage provides the answer: “he thought to himself: ‘My soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry’. In other words, live the good life, all for yourself, with your god: eat, drink and enter into that exasperated consumerism [which] does not stop, knows no limits”.
However, Pope Francis pointed out, “God sets the limits”: “God said to him: ‘Fool!’. — How many times is the word ‘fool’ used in the Gospel? — This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have stored up, whose will they be?’”. In response, the Pope observed, his wealth will end up in the hands of his heirs who will fight over those treasures considered to be like a god.
“This Gospel passage begins with an argument over an inheritance and will end with another argument when the nephews and all these will come: we know what will happen”, he added. But it is “God who puts a limit on this attachment to money”. That “man becomes the slave of money is not a fairytale which Jesus invents: this is the reality” also today, he stressed.
There are “many men and women who live to worship money, to make money their god: many people who live only for this and life has no meaning”, Pope Francis said. “‘So is he who lays up treasure for himself’ — says the Lord in the Gospel — and is not rich toward God’”. In reality, the Holy Father said, “they do not know what it means to be rich toward God”.
Pope Francis then shared a personal story. “I remember some years ago, in the other diocese, a case which greatly impressed me: a great and very wealthy businessman had a similar attitude. He had cancer. He knew it. He only had a few more days left to live. In that last week of his life, he was thrilled about a villa and he bought a villa. He thought only about this. He was locked in that thought. When I saw this, I was taken aback. He did not think about the following week when he would have to stand before God”. Even today, he continued, there are “many people, many of these people who have so much”. “Let us just look at starving children who have no medicine, have no education, who are abandoned”. “This is idolatry, but it is an idolatry which kills and makes ‘human sacrifices’ because this idolatry causes many people to starve to death”, he said.
“Let us think about only a single case: [there are] 200,000 Rohingya children in refugee camps. There are 800,000 people there, 200,000 of them are children. They barely have enough to eat: malnourished, without any medicine. This still happens today. It is not something that the Lord says about those times. No, today!”, Pope Francis stressed.
Because of this, “our prayers must be strong: Lord, please touch the hearts of these people who worship… the god of money. Also touch my heart so that I may not fall into that, that I may be able to see”, the Pope prayed. He then spoke about another consequence: “There is war, always, here, family war. We all know what happens when an inheritance is at stake. Families become divided and end up hating each other”.
Pope Francis ended his homily by referring back to the Gospel narrative. “At the end [of the passage] the Lord gently stresses: one who is ‘not rich toward God’”. “That is the only path: richness, but in God”, the Pope affirmed. However, he continued, this is “not contempt for money, no. It is truly covetousness as he says, covetousness”. It is “living attached to the god of money”. Concluding his remarks, the Pope urged that “our prayers must be strong today, these days when the media shows us many, many calamities, many injustices; let us just think of the children: Lord, may you convert the hearts of these people, that they may know you and not worship the god of money”.
(Santa Marta, 23 October 2017)