You Can't Take It With You

Oct. 23: Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

An interesting thing I noticed about today’s Gospel— if Luke were a fictional narrative, it would be much more efficient to have the complainer in the crowd be the rich man building bigger barns. The story-within-a-story we get violates the “show, don’t tell” rule of writing.

If it were fictional.

But Luke apparently either witnessed this event, or interviewed someone who had, and felt that truthfully recording the parable-within-a-Gospel was more important than narrative efficiency.

Reading 1

Rom 4:20-25

Brothers and sisters: Abraham did not doubt God's promise in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God and was fully convinced that what God had promised he was also able to do. That is why it was credited to him as righteousness. But it was not for him alone that it was written that it was credited to him; it was also for us, to whom it will be credited, who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification.

“Abraham did not doubt God's promise in unbelief” is a tricky phrase.¹ What Paul means is, Abraham’s doubts came from usual human cynicism. But once Abraham saw what God was able to do, he believed.

This lesson is also for “us,” referring Paul and his Roman followers, but also “us,” meaning all Christians for all time. Never think that the lessons of the Old Testament are outdated. “Old” is a description, not a criticism.

We have seen and heard and learned about greater things than Abraham ever did, thanks to the Gospels. We can’t let our natural skepticism, lead us from faith to doubt.

Responsorial Psalm

Luke 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
He has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.

This is the Canticle of Zechariah, which he sung at John the Baptist’s briss. He’s ostensibly singing to his son, but Zechariah is obviously speaking past his own son to the one he’ll announce—Jesus.

Zechariah recognizes that he’s part of a long chain, not the end of it—from Abraham to David to his own son, and ultimately his nephew. He doesn’t force himself to be the center of the story (what Bishop Barron calls an egodrama). Zechariah is happy to just fulfill his role in God’s plan (the theodrama).

We can all learn from the humility of a great man.

Alleluia

Mt 5:3

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Matthew added the phrase “in spirit” to indicate that anyone, no matter their financial class, can recognize their total dependence on God.

Gospel

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."

I don’t think the person with the inheritance issue was trying to trick Jesus, unlike the Pharisees we heard about yesterday. But, as Jesus points out, he was still too focused on the things of this world.

So He tells one of the more transparent parables in the New Testament. No matter how rich or poor we are, God is in control of our lives.

1. Which is soooooooooooo unusual for Paul, right?