What Matters to God

October 23, Monday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint John of Capistrano
Daily Readings: First reading: Romans 4:20–25; Gospel: Luke 12:13–21

We love to ask questions to our teachers, elders, priests, and/or religious sisters about important things in life, and sometimes we also request that they mediate in our family or couple disagreements.

Today, the Gospel presents us with Jesus in a similar situation. When He is asked to get in the middle of an inheritance quarrel, Jesus chooses, instead, to ask questions and to tell a story, a parable. The parable presents a powerful image and teaching: a farmer who had an overabundant harvest. This is a blessing, right? And so, we think. When someone we know, especially a family member, has a successful outcome in business—a promotion, an increase in salary, a great harvest—and we know how our farmers suffer to get one of those, our first reaction is to say things like, How lucky, What a blessing, More power to you, etc.

Jesus, in his story, has God calling a fool a farmer who gets the fruit of his hard work. Not because that is not positive. Wealth and prosperity are not bad. What is the problem, then?

First, it seems that our friend, the farmer, does not stop to ponder the origin of his blessings and give thanks to the source of his prosperity.

Secondly, he thinks about expanding his storage facilities instead of sharing the surplus of his harvest with others, with those who are poorer or those who did not have a “good harvest.” And here, Jesus challenges the one asking him to mediate in the inheritance dispute: do not be greedy; after you get rich and die (which we are all going through someday), who will be the owner of all you have? With whom do you share?

What matters to God is our faith, as the first reading says about Abraham, and also not what we possess but rather our capacity to be grateful and share what we have.

Let us start living today by setting our hearts on what matters to God. What do I need to thank God for today? Is there someone with whom I can share my faith and the surplus of my earnings, knowledge, or skills?