The Gospel for Monday in the 29th week of ordinary time is taken from Luke 12:13 to the 21st verse. 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 arbiter. 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 if 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. It is clear in this passage that Jesus is warning people against their addiction to possessions. And what I love about it is the question at the end, because it says, what is it really that makes you rich in the eyes of God? It’s relationships. How God has been able to use you to bring people into a greater awareness of who he is.

That’s the treasure that we should be working toward. And it has a bountiful reward not only in the next life, but in this life also. Foreign the Closing Prayer Father, help us to see the world as you have taught us to look at it. It’s a place where we build and grow as a community of believers and lovers and forgivers. Bless us with our focus being on that great gift, and we ask this in Jesus name, amen.