"Be on your guard and avoid every kind of gred,

                                                   for even though you have many possessions,

                       it is not that which gives you life."

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23

 All is meaningless –                                                                                                                                                   

 

Says the Teacher – meaningless, meaningless!

 For here was a man who toiled in all wisdom, knowledge and skill and he must leave all to someone who has not worked for it. This is meaningless and a great misfortune. For what profit is there for a man in all his work and heart-searching under the sun? All his days bring sorrow, his work grief; he hasn’t, moreover, peaceful rest at night: that too is meaningless.

 Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12 -13  , 17                                                                                                                                                                                                

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

 

＊＊＊ 2nd Reading ＊＊＊

Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11

So then, if you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.   Set your mind on the things that are above, not on earthly things.  For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.   When Christ, who is your life, reveals himself, you also will be revealed with him in Glory.

Therefore, put to death what is earthly in your life, that is immorality, impurity, inordinate passions, wicked desires and greed which is a way of wor­shiping idols.  Do not lie to one an­other. You have been stripped of the old self and its way of thinking  to put on the new, which is being renewed and is to reach perfect knowledge and the likeness of its creator.  There is no room for distinction between Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, foreigner, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 12:13-21

 Someone in the crowd spoke to Je­sus, “Master, tell my brother to share with me the family inheritance.”  He replied, “My friend, who has appointed me as your judge or your attorney?”  Then Jesus said to the people, “Be on your guard and avoid every kind of greed, for even though you have many possessions, it is not that which gives you life.”

 And Jesus continued with this story, “There was a rich man and his land had produced a good harvest.   He thought: ‘What shall I do? For I am short of room to store my harvest.’   So this is what he planned: ‘I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones to store all this grain, which is my wealth.  

Then I may say to myself: My friend, you have a lot of good things put by for many years. Rest, eat, drink and enjoy yourself.’   But God said to him: ‘You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you; tell me who shall get all you have put aside?’  This is the lot of the one who stores up riches instead of amassing for God.”

 

 Gospel Reflection：

Read: The book of Ecclesiastes Iaments the meaninglessness and irony of human life. Paul asks Colossians to set one’s mind on the things from above. Jesus relativizes earthly riches and invites us to seek to be wealthy in the eyes of God.

Reflect: In the 1989 movie Dead Poets , Society, John Keating, the new English teacher, leads his students towards a group photo of senior alumni (who are all now dead), displayed prominently in the school. Referring to them, Keating observes: “The world was their oyster. They believed they were destined for greatness….

But these boys are now fertilizing daffodils.”Shocking imagery, but so very true! How we obsess about many material achievements in life, as if we would live forever! We live as if death happens to someone else, and not to us! Once a woman in her late 80s came to me to discuss her end-of –life decisions. While speaking, she repeatedly used the phrase, “If I die…..I gently said to her: “Perhaps you might want

To say, ‘when I die.’”She stood stunned for a moment also then broke into  a smile of recognition.

Pray: Pray for a clear awareness about our true home and destiny.

Act: Spend some time in a cemetery, meditating on the fragility of life.