St James Catholic Church

Dear Parishioners,
“You can’t take it with you.” It’s a reminder that the wealth we accumulate in this world does not transfer to the next. In our secular society, this saying often implies that you should spend your wealth now while you can enjoy it, but our faith demands that we look at wealth differently. Building up material wealth is irrelevant to our vocation as disciples. It can distract us from what is truly important. In prayer, we lift our hearts and raise our voices to God, who is the source of our true wealth.
Again and again, Jesus warns us about inheritances. Remember the prodigal son? His troubles begin when he takes his share of the inheritance and squanders it on dissolute living. In another parable, he tells of wicked tenants who kill the vineyards owner’s son so that they will get his inheritance. Today it’s a person in the crowd who is upset because his brother received an inheritance and not him. Jesus could have said that fairness demands the inheritance be split in half. Or, he could have asked if there may be a good reason he wasn’t given a share of it. Instead, he cautions us about greed. Possessions, inherited or not, are not the goal of life. As we have seen, inheritances can lead to tragedy and often do as St. Paul wrote in his first letter to Timothy, “For the love of money is the root of all evils.”
The rich man has a problem in the gospel that would be the envy of any farmer. His harvest was larger than he could handle. Immediately he decides that he will hoard the entire harvest so that he can “eat, drink, and be merry” for many years. Why did it not occur to him to give generously himself, to share it with others who did not deserve it? What’s more, the bountiful harvest was produced by the land, the sun, and the rain. What made him feel entitled to take it all for himself? To share generously from our bounty is to become rich in imitation of God.
Love, Peace, Joy,
Fr Bob