Daily Mass Readings and Daily Meditation ”The Word Among Us” ~ Monday, 21 October 2013
Meditation: Luke 12:13 One of the multitude said to him, “Rabbi, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15 He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.”
16 He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly. 17 He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’ 18 He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’ 21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”(Messianic WEB)
29th Week in Ordinary Time
One’s life does not consist of possessions. (Luke 12:15)
Let’s get one thing clear from the start: Jesus didn’t call the rich man in his parable a fool because of his wealth. Rather, his folly had to do with where he placed his hope. “Bigger storehouses! That’s the ticket,” he reasoned when he had an exceedingly good harvest. With storehouses full of food and goods, he was sure he would live a worry-free life.
Worry free? Hardly! What if the storehouses are raided? I should build a fence. What if they burn down? I need insurance. What if the rates go up? What if my goods spoil? I should probably make sure they’re environmentally controlled. What if that breaks?
Imagine if the man had placed the Lord of the harvest ahead of the harvest itself? Then the source of his hope would not have been one prosperous season but the One who is provider and sustainer of life year in and year out.
What the rich fool couldn’t understand is that our lives are sustained day to day, moment to moment, by the Father. Here’s one way to look at it. Once you turn on your television, it stays on only because it continues to draw power from an electrical source. When you turn it off, it no longer has “life.” It doesn’t matter how many stations you get via satellite or the cool all-in-one remote you have. In a sense, we are similar. We have life because God is sourcing our lives, and we will enjoy that life only to the degree that we are “plugged into” it.
It is only as we maintain continuous, life-giving contact with the Lord that we will thrive. Only then will we experience a greater sense of joy and freedom, power over temptation, peace in the midst of life’s challenges, and a lasting sense of dignity and purpose.
So how will you respond when “your life will be demanded of you” (Luke 12:20)? By showing the Lord the material wealth you have accumulated? Or by giving him a life that has relied again and again and again on his love and providence?
“Lord, I choose to hope in you rather than in stored-up earthly wealth. Markets fluctuate, and riches may come and go. But you are unchanging. You are my true treasure.” AMEN!
Romans 4:20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. 22 Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”✡ 23 Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Yeshua, our Lord, from the dead, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.(Messianic WEB)
(Psalm) Luke 1:69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
70 (as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been from of old),
71 salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show mercy towards our fathers,
to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath which he swore to Abraham, our father,
74 to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
should serve him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.(Messianic WEB)
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