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Our adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in "muchness" and "manyness" he will rest most satisfied. - Richard Foster
(How might have you been caught in these lately? What are the antidotes?)
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EPH 2:1-10; PS 100:1B-2, 3, 4AB, 4C-5
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.”
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"There was a rich man." —Luke 12:16
The man of today's
Gospel reading was a fool because he grew "rich for himself instead of growing rich in the sight of God" (Lk 12:21). God our Father is rich in mercy (Eph 2:4). He also possesses the great and unfathomable wealth of His grace (Eph 2:7; 3:8). As God the Father's children, we inherit even now "the wealth of His glorious heritage to be distributed among the members of the Church" (Eph 1:18). God's children are the richest people in the world, but not necessarily rich by worldly
standards.
We grow "rich in the sight of God" by inheriting as fully as possible His riches. We do this by living fully our Baptisms as faithful sons and daughters of God our Father. We store up riches in heaven by selling what we have and giving alms (Lk 12:33; see also Mt 19:21). To build a secure foundation for the future, we should "be rich in good
works and generous, sharing what" we have (1 Tm 6:18).
Jesus "made Himself poor though He was rich, so that you might become rich by His poverty" (2 Cor 8:9). God the Father wants His children to be rich with His riches and by His standards. Forfeit everything: count "all else rubbish so that Christ may be" your Wealth (Phil 3:8). Grow "rich in the sight of
God."
Prayer: Father, enlighten the eyes of my heart to know my riches as Your child (Eph 1:18).
Promise: "He brought us to life with Christ when we were dead in sin." —Eph 2:5
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence - by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
CHAPTER II. THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS.
SECTION I.The Divine Action.
The divine action, although only visible to the eye of faith, is everywhere, and always present.
There is not a moment in which God does not present
Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.
It is really and truly there present, but invisibly present, so that we are always surprised and
do not recognise His operation until it has ceased. If we could lift the veil, and if we were attentive and watchful God would continually reveal Himself to us, and we should see His divine action in everything that happened to us, and rejoice in it. At each successive occurrence we should exclaim: “It is the Lord,” and we should accept every fresh circumstance as a gift of God. We should look upon creatures as feeble tools in the hands of an able workman, and should discover easily that nothing
was wanting to us, and that the constant providence of God disposed Him to bestow upon us at every moment whatever we required. If only we had faith we should show good-will to all creatures; we should cherish them and be interiorly grateful to them as serving, by Gods will, for our perfection.
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