Sts. John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs
Ephesians 2:1-10  +  Luke 12:13-21
October 19, 2020

“‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you ….’”

Although in meditating upon today’s Gospel passage we might choose to reflect upon either Jesus’ interaction with the jealous brother, or His parable to the crowd, consider the parable.

It illustrates what He had previously explained about the connections among “one’s life”, “greed”, and “possessions”.  Material possessions are not inherently bad.  Even person with religious vows of poverty possess their “own” clothing, even if they do not “own” them.  But possessions always tempt one—through the vice of greed—to more possessions, either in quantity or quality.  One such quality that tempts is mere novelty, and this especially is a weakness of young persons.

The rich farmer in Jesus’ parable is the antithesis to Ecclesiastes’ Qoheleth.  The rich farmer cries out to himself, “rest, eat, drink, be merry!”  This is in contrast to the king of Israel who confesses that “I said in my heart, ‘Come, now, let me try you with pleasure and the enjoyment of good things.’  See, this too was vanity.”  The rich farmer in the parable does not have the wisdom of Qoheleth, but of course, Qoheleth did not know Christ, the one who possesses all the riches of the Father’s love.