SHARE YOUR RESOURCES – AUGUST 1ST EIGHEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR {C} Lk 12: 13-21)

John Wesley’s rule of life was to save all he could and give all he could. When he was at Oxford he had an income of 30 pounds a year. He lived on 28 pound and gave 2 pound away. When his income increased to 120 pound a year, he still lived on 28 pounds and gave the balance away. The Accountant – General for Household Plate demanded a return from him, his reply was ‘I have two silver tea spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate I have at present; and I shall not buy any more, while around me want bread.

1. It is not up to Christ or his Church to solve the world's problems. This is up to human institutions, the authorities charged with the task. The Church’s mission is to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God.

2. Jesus did not come to abolish all evils here below, but to free men from the gravest slavery, sins which thwarts them in their vocation as God’s sons and causes all forms of human bondage.

3. Human development is not limited to economic development alone. Economic development is only one aspect of human development. The real development is the development of his/her being. The rich man was not dishonest. He did not cheat anyone. The mistake he made was to live forgetful of God and of his neighbour. The rich man was greedy.

4. There is no parable which is so full of the words, I, me, my and mine. This can be even called as ‘Aggressive Pronouns’ the rich man was aggressively self-centered. We should reduce the use of aggressive pronouns.

5. Jesus is not ordering us to live in a shiftless, thriftless, reckless way. What he tells is to do our best and leave the rest to God. I, you and we elements should always be there. Our self gets meaning only in relation with the others and God.

The Romans had a proverb which said that money was like sea water; the more you drink the more the thirstier you become. Similarly, as long as our attitude is that of the rich fool our desire will always be to get more- and that is the reverse of the Christian way. We should not forget that the instant culture which the media propagates induces us to become radical consumerists. The moment we begin to consider money as the end, our end is also determined.

Courtesy

Words of Eternal life

William Barclay’s Commentary