Today’s Gospel can make for uncomfortable reading. Many of us have worked hard to earn what we have today. Yet the man in the parable is held up as an example of wasting time by building up his impressive stash of grain and goods. Is Jesus telling us we shouldn’t save up? Is he telling us we shouldn’t own any stuff at all?
Fortunately for us all, the answer is “noâ€. The man in the parable has decided to hold on to his great harvest. It is more than he needs, but he decides he will go to great lengths to hold on to it, even building new, bigger, barns. Having more than you need might make your life easier in the short term, but it will do your soul no good at all. Once he is dead, the man will have nothing. Our souls are made no better by having lots of money or lots of stuff. It is fine to have the things we need to live, but the Gospel teaches us to be wary of allowing our desire for wealth to be our driving force. In order to have something to take with us when we die, we are called to live lives that make us rich in God’s eyes, not rich in the eyes of the world.
Unlike the man with his barns full but his soul empty, Christians are called to a life of inner wealth. The saying goes, “You can’t take it with you when you goâ€, but the treasures that we find in Jesus are something that we can take with us all the way to heaven.