The Catholic Calendar for Monday, October 23, 2006
Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
St. John of Capistrano, religious and priest

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Ephesians 2:1-10
Psalm 100:1b-2, 3, 4ab, 4c-5
Luke 12:13-21

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions." (Luke 12:15)

This is the message Jesus wishes to convey in today's Gospel. He goes on to tell a parable about a man whose thoughts and focus were on his crops. Because of his earthly riches he worried about nothing else. And yet before he could reap all the benefits of his greatest labors he would die. Hence he would leave behind everything which he held dear. So if we cannot bring things of the world with us when we die, what can we bring? After all, there is no U-Haul trailer behind the hearse.

In St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians he writes "You were dead in your transgressions and sin in which you once lived following the age of this world . . . ." (Ephesians 2:1) But, as he continues with hope "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 . . . ." (see Eph. 2:4-5) It is God's love which is the most precious thing that we can possess. With this, we’ll be rich beyond our dreams. God's wealth, as Jesus explains, is not in material things but in God's will which is always connected with God's love.

Riches are supposed to make us happy. Earthly riches last but a short time and therefore the happiness connected with these things is also short-lived. But God's riches, His many graces, can last for all eternity, enabling us to be eternally happy if we choose to keep and preserve them.

- Danielle