First Reading • Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
Psalm • Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17
Second Reading • Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Gospel • Luke 12:13-21
There was a man who spent his whole life worried about having enough money. He worked and saved to the point that he didn’t make any time for his wife and family. Working and putting money away was all he would make time for. Because he didn’t trust banks, he kept every dollar he could save tucked away in a safe in his basement.
With time, his obsessive work habits caught up with him and he started to get sick. When he couldn’t work anymore, he made a will. In it, he stated that he wanted to be buried with all the money he had saved over the years.
He had worked hard for it, and it didn’t seem right to him that someone else would enjoy it, even his family.
So, at his wake, one of his wife’s friends came up to her and asked. “Did you honor his wishes and bury him with all his money?”
The wife replied, “Yes. I just wrote him a cheque.”
This story helps us to understand the point of Jesus’ parable. There is nothing wrong with working hard and saving money. In fact, it is good to plan for the future. However, it all has to be kept in perspective.
Our money will do us no good after we have died. Even if we decide we want to be buried with our possessions, they will be of no use to us. As we hear in today’s first reading, no matter how much or how little we have when we die, it will all go to someone else.
This reading reminds us that the fruit of all our hard work, our success, property, even our wisdom, can end up in the hands of someone who may not value it. The point is not that work or success is meaningless, but that they are not enough. That is why we must find time to love, to care, to be with others.
Life is not just about what we build or buy, but about the people we accompany. Spend time listening, comforting, and supporting those in need.
It is true that death marks an end for us. But the resurrection of Jesus has changed everything. Death is only the end of our life on earth. By rising from the dead, Jesus has revealed to us that our life has a value beyond what we can earn and produce.
Our destiny is in Heaven, and God has an inheritance waiting there for us. We will take with us all the good, loving deeds we have performed.
So, Saint Paul urges us in today’s second reading, “…seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God”. Everything on earth will pass away. Nothing we do here on earth lasts.
But the things of Heaven are eternal. Whatever good we do that is motivated by love will last. They are the only treasures that we can take with us.
When we look at our lives from this perspective – that we will be judged by how much we love – it changes the way that we value our work. Work is something all of us must do.
There is no avoiding it. But even in your busy schedule of work, find time to love. Find time to console someone who is grieving, to listen to a friend, to reach out to someone who feels alone. It may seem small, but in God’s eyes, it is great. This is how we become “rich in what matters to God.”
We need to be grateful for the people God brings into our lives through our work. Even the people who irritate and annoy us can help us to grow in patience.
The other way we can build treasure in Heaven through our earthly jobs is by making our work a prayer.
For instance, if we are doing something especially difficult, we can offer it up as a sacrifice for someone. In that way, our suffering becomes a blessing for someone else.
Our work – no matter what it may be – can help us not only to create a life for us here on earth but to grow in love and the other virtues. Our true identity is found in Christ.
That’s why we are called to put away greed, selfishness, and division – and to clothe ourselves with compassion, humility, and love. Those are the only things we will be able to take with us.
Think for a moment: If you had only one week left to live, what would suddenly matter most to you? Wouldn’t it be your relationships? The love you’ve shared? The good you have done? That’s the kind of wisdom Jesus is urging us to live with every day; not just at the end.
Because in the end, only one treasure will matter: the life we lived in God.
