Jesus is the first among those who gladly give all they have and are for others’ sake.  Greed has no part in him and in those who are his. 

Someone in the crowd asks Jesus for help to settle a family feud about inheritance.  He does not have a name and does not need it.  For we know him and his brother; they are us, our relatives, friends or neighbors.   And though Jesus turns him down, he goes on to address the root of such feud, which is greed.  He thus lays out a solution to an old problem that surfaces time and again.

And the Teacher uses a parable to make his point:  greed makes fools of those who just seek to amass wealth only for their use, ease, pleasure; they do not care about others at all.  He makes them, and all of us, face death, as he reads to the rich God’s sentence, “You fool.  You will die tonight.  Whose, then, will be what you have stored up?” 

Yes, we all die sooner or later, just like the animals, and those with wealth leave it to others.  So, those who are wise and know how to make millions, in the end, work in vain.

And it is not that we are not to better our life and our standing or place in it.  But we are fools to make money our god.  To think that to live is no more and no less than to have wealth.  If we do and think so, greed, then, is indeed idol worship.

Yet Jesus makes clear that there is more to life than to own assets.  He brings to light that greed is not good, though it may seem so.  Nay, it is folly.  For it makes us less human.  And from it stem all kinds of evil, that is, wars, fightings, killings, envy.

Lord Jesus, we who try to follow you in Vincent’s way do guard and cry out, yes, against all greed.  But should we not wonder if we might not be less greedy than the rich fools?  For we still seek the shade, our ease, rooms, books, Masses, and forget that we live on the sweat of the poor (SV.EN XI:190).  Help us to get rid of these bits of greed, so we may give all we have and are. Give up our bodies and shed our blood also.

3 August 2025
18th Sunday in O.T. (C)
Ecl 1, 2; 2, 21-23; Col 3, 1-5. 9-11; Lc 12, 13-21