Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Lk 12: 13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Guard Against Greed
The rich man in the parable from today’s Gospel focuses his efforts on accumulating wealth so that he can rest, eat, drink and be merry. Christ’s subsequent teachings provide an important perspective given modern society’s obsession with living comfortably and accumulating wealth and possessions. Turning on the news or scrolling through social media, we are inundated with information about gas prices, inflation, the twists and turns of the stock market, mortgage rates, etc. Simultaneously, algorithms overwhelm our web browsers with targeted advertising for stuff, stuff and more stuff. It can be exhausting to sift through this unceasing bombardment from all directions.
Jesus’ challenge to “guard against all greed” and instead focus on what matters to God rarely comes across our students’ timelines or news feeds. As a Jesuit educator, it is my responsibility to provide this important wakeup call from Jesus to our students as an antidote to the relentless calls for greed and selfishness that seem to be omnipresent.
How do I model Jesus’ teaching for those I encounter? What can I do to help those around me to avoid the fate of the rich man in today’s Gospel?
—Mike Scicchitano is the principal of Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve as you deserve,
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To labor and not to seek to rest,
To give of my self and not ask for a reward,
Except the reward of knowing that I am doing your will.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.
Amen
—St. Ignatius of Loyola