Rich Before God

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“A man in the crowd said to him: ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’ He said to him, ‘My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs’” (Luke 12:13-15).

Someone has pointed out that the social teaching of the Church is there to put these guidelines into practice.

The social teaching of the Church is a body of teaching that started with an Encyclical called Rerum novarum, way back in the 1870s.

It was like a compendium of all the things that the Church had taught on social matters related to work, justice, and especially with the idea of the dignity of every human person at its center.

Ever since then, every single pope has issued at least one social Encyclical. St. John Paul II issued three (Laborem exercens, Sollicitudo rei socialis, Centesimus annus).

These Encyclicals are one of the great treasures of the Catholic Church, and it is a very good idea at some stage to read some of the social encyclicals. The Church has an awful lot to say to the world on these matters.

This person in the Gospel comes and asks Our Lord to tell his brother to solve this social problem, this problem of inheritance.

But Our Lord doesn't get drawn into concrete matters: “Who appointed me your judge or the arbitrator of your claims?”

But what He does do is give criteria—attitudes, virtues that you have to watch out for—criteria with which to solve those problems.

The social teaching of the Church is giving to the Church and to the world that criteria to families, organizations, societies, factories, to companies—attitudes and ideas with which to bring about a more just society.

Then he said, “Watch and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.”

Our Lord points out certain things to watch out for that spirit of avarice, the bad things that are there in the human heart that He speaks about on other occasions.

He invites people to lead a life of temperance, detachment, of poverty, of temperance.

“Then he told them a parable, ‘There was once a rich man, who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, and have a good time.”’

‘But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?” So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight of God’” (Luke 12:16-21).

One question we could ask ourselves: In what ways am I rich? Am I rich in material possessions? Am I rich in my glory? Am I rich in the letters that I have after my name, my talents, and my abilities? Or am I rich before God?

St. John Paul II issued an Encyclical many years ago that he called “Rich in Mercy”–Dives in misericordia. It is sort of a reminder to us to examine ourselves and see where I am rich. Am I rich in the important things?

Of course, this man that we have spoken of here is very successful. He has plenty of crops. He is thinking, ‘Now I can take it easy. I have plenty of good things for years to come.’ He is thinking of himself, of his own barns, of his own stores.

He’s not thinking of other people, of giving it away, of seeing how he could bring up the living standards of those people around him. He’s not thinking about social justice, charity, concern for others, the dignity of all the people around him.

And that is why God comes along with strong language, “Fool!”

We could have an idea in my life—'I want to get as rich as I can, I want to have as many things as I can.’ That is not a bad goal to have. We should try and have all the things that are necessary to live a decent life, to live with dignity.

But also, to have things that are superfluous—a person who hoards all sorts of things becoming wealthy, while the people around them are in want, is not rich in the eyes of God.

I heard someone say once that a factory someplace is producing a lot of goods and a lot of wealth, and the owners of the factory are doing very well. But the workers of the factory are living in poverty.

The people who run that factory have to examine their conscience and see what they are doing to improve the living standards of those people around them: their education, their basic material needs, and their health care.

A Christian conscience thinks about all these things and does all it can to try and improve those situations and those problems, because ultimately, only God can fill our heart.

We are told many times in Scripture that we have to seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. St. Paul says, “Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are below” (Col. 3:2).

And on another occasion Our Lord says, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where thieves do not break in and steal, and dust and moth do not consume” (cf. Matt. 6:20).

We need to be wary of storing up for ourselves treasures on earth, because the things of this world last a relatively short period of time, and they cannot fill the longings of the human heart.

A good thing to examine your conscience on when you go to Confession is your spirit of detachment, spirit of poverty, spirit of generosity. Do I have things that I really don't need? Am I using well the things I have?

We could spend our lifetime trying to have and have and have, like this man in the parable. But God may have planned that we have to give an account of our soul tomorrow. He has told us He will come “like a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2; cf. Matt. 24:43).

God invites us to give while we have time, while we have the light. We should be trying to give a little more than our peers. People should be surprised that we are earning so much, but yet we give so much. We seem to give more than we earn. It is a good thing to try and live a little bit at a lower level than your peers. Give away everything that you can.

There may be a great temptation to pass on to your children great wealth. But that is a very good way to ruin their lives. They don't have to strive and work like you have done to achieve what you have.

The greater part of life can be spent in pain and suffering. The Psalms say, “Every life passes like the wind; barely a trace is left behind” (Ps. 103:16).

In the best of cases, one might amass a great fortune, only for it to be left to others. What does all the pain and effort add up to? Maybe nothing.

The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us that “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Eccles. 1:2). In the face of this emptiness and inconsistency, all this pointlessness, “God is the rock of our salvation” (Ps. 95:1).

God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul, and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then? So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself, instead of becoming rich in the sight of God” (Luke 12:20-21).

It's a very good question to ask ourselves each day. Am I rich in the sight of God? Is God happy with what I am doing with all the material things that I have, all those gifts that He has given to me?

I realize that everything is a gift: the chairs I sit down on, the pictures that may decorate my walls, and the bed I lay down in at night.

The Psalm says, “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise” (Ps. 95:2).

We know that the human heart has a tremendous capacity to seek the things of the world without paying any attention to the transcendent meaning of life.

Money can be very sticky; it can stick like tar. It can be the occasion of sin to us.

The human heart can tend to become attached to worldly goods as the only goal in life, forgetting what is important.

‘I want to have this. I want to buy that. I want to supersize it.’ The advertising world can be very good at convincing us that we need certain things.

In this passage of the Gospel, Our Lord takes advantage of a question about inheritance to teach us the true worth of things in the light of eternity (Luke 12:13-21).

We find that we do not inherit what we thought we would inherit. And we didn’t get the portion or the legacy that we thought we would get. Well, there is no use crying over spilled milk.

Try and take it supernaturally. See the hand of God behind these things. Maybe it is an opportunity to practice greater virtue, to grow in holiness, to thank God for the good things that we have.

“If you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?” (Matt. 7:11). If at times we are expecting more and we get less, it may be that God knows we don’t need it.

Our Lord brings up the subject of death. There is a poem called Death the Leveller. Death levels all people: Scepter and crown, Must tumble down...Everybody is equaled by death.

“He said, ‘The land of this rich man brought forth plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?... I will pull down my barns and build larger ones’” (Luke 12:16-18).

Instead of just being content with what he had and trying to think a little bit more about the people around him with a social conscience, he says, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry” (Luke 12:19).

“Enjoy life. Now you can be at ease.” That is a great temptation. It might lead us on a pathway to hell.

Our Lord is teaching us that putting our hearts into the pursuit of wealth and worldly well-being is foolishness. We have to learn how to be content with what we have, to lead a simple and sober life.

Happiness, or authentic human life, is not founded on worldly goods. “A man’s life,” we are told, “does not consist of the abundance of his possessions” (cf. Luke 12:15).

We should never boast about the material things that we have. We have to try and see everything as a gift. We need to strive for the spiritual things.

The rich man in the parable discloses his ‘value system’ in his mental dialogue.

What is your value system? What are the things you value most? Are your eyes set on heaven, on eternal happiness, on the eternal wedding feast? Or are you focused on the things that you can bring with you? You will find that you have to leave everything behind.

The rich man sees himself in a very secure position because he has great resources. He bases his stability and his happiness on the wealth that he has acquired. What a tragedy!

Yet we may look around us and find that so many people in the world function with the same value system.

Pope Francis has often talked about the “spiritual emptiness” of the world (Pope Francis Address, December 22, 2014). We are here to remedy that situation, to remind people that there is something after this world, that man has a soul.

For this man, as for many people, living is a matter of enjoying as much pleasure as possible and doing as little as need be, to eat, to drink, to have a good time, to lay up ample goods for many years.

That is his ideal, whereas the greatest ideals we could have in this world are the ideals of Christ. He has something to say to us each day of our life.

In this man’s life, there is no reference to God. Perhaps he has no time for God. He has to play golf on a Sunday morning or do other things. The laws of God come last.

There is no reference to the needs of other people. He sees no need to share his goods with others less fortunate than himself. He is stingy, selfish. It is a very ugly picture. Pitiful.

And how does he plan to maintain his thoroughly materialistic lifestyle? “I will store up my goods.” Yet in the end, all his calculations are for nothing.

There was a man who was interviewed on TV once. He had won the lottery. He won a huge fortune of money. He had been dreaming of winning a million dollars, and now he had won a million dollars, and he was asked by the compere, the interviewer, “What is your next step now that you've won a million dollars?”

He said, “Earn another million.”

Our human heart may never be satisfied with those material things. The things of this world give very fragile and insufficient security because our lives will never be fulfilled without God.

Frequently in our prayer, we can ask ourselves, ‘Where is my heart?’ Because we know that our destination is heaven, we have to make positive and concrete acts of detachment with regard to what we own and what we use. What a wonderful example it is to give your children that sort of spirit and those values.

I knew a man once who was not well off, but somehow in some legacy, he inherited a car, and he already had a car. So, he gave that car to a priest he knew.

It was described later as a great act of generosity. He could have sold the car and got a lot of money and gone on a great holiday or put it in the bank. But he saw it as an opportunity to give, to be generous with God.

We have to continually ask ourselves, ‘How much do I share our goods with the needy?’

St. Josemaría used to try and encourage people to have a certain spirit of giving whatever we might spend on one more child in the family—for school fees, for clothes, for holidays, for celebrations.

Every time there was a celebration or something nice happening in the family, he would think about doing something similar for some poorer family, or making some sort of a gesture of authentic generosity, or perhaps involving the children in that, thinking, ‘How much time and wealth do I contribute to apostolic works to bring them forward? I have my heart truly there.’

Our “life on this earth is short and fleeting” (Ps. 39:4). Another message from this parable—"the thief in the night” (Matt. 24:43; 1 Thess. 5:2). We can be asked to account tomorrow.

We should try to take advantage of the noble things of this earth, to win heaven. Every day of our life, to win a little bit of heaven through that practice of virtue, through sharing or giving.

Even though He has been overlooked, God interrupts this rich man, in all of his thinking, to pass judgment on his chosen way of life: “You fool!”—How many people in the world might God feel a need to call out to with those same terms?—“This night, your soul is required of you.”

The amount of time you have left is limited. It can be counted in seconds, in minutes. “This night, the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20).

As we get older in life, maybe we have acquired more things. Our spirit should be all the more attentive because maybe, we know that we have less time.

I heard of an elderly lady once whose son had decided to become a priest and he had a large amount of money. She was his mother, and she wanted that part of the inheritance. She wanted the money for herself.

She was already very wealthy. What could she use it for? She was already very advanced in years. There is something sad or pitiful about that situation.

We should try to encourage people. I heard recently of a very wealthy lady in London who had inherited a huge fortune that was passed down through her family for, maybe, centuries. She commented to somebody else that a priest told her that she would not be happy until she gave it all away.

That is not a bad thing to tell people. Find happiness in giving it all away, because happiness is in giving, not in getting.

“So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God” (Luke 12: 21). How happy must God be when He looks down on earth and sees a heart that is truly detached and generous, and living this value system, looking up at Him.

Our passage upon this earth is a time of testing. God has given us our time, our possibilities, our opportunities, and He wants our response. St. Paul says, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb. 13:14). And we have to earn our passports.

There was a story of a man once who had given thousands of euros to Catholic charities, an Irish man. But when he went to heaven, he found his name was not in the Book of Life.

He said to the gatekeeper of heaven, “I think there has been some mistake because I gave thousands of euros to Catholic charities in my life. There’s been some mistake here. Can you ask St. Patrick to come out here, please? I'd like to have a word with him.”

St. Patrick comes out, and he explains to St. Patrick, “Look, I think there’s been some mistake, because I gave thousands of euros to Catholic charities in my life, and my name is not in the Book of Life.”

St. Patrick said, “Well, I will see what I can do. I will go inside. I’ll talk to the higher-ups.”

So he went inside and talked to St. Peter, and after some time he came back to this man and said, “Look, I’m sorry, but the best we can do is to give you your money back.”

We are told in Scripture, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matt. 7:21).

We have to look around and see what God has given us. What does He want me to give away and in what way? And not just if I have an awful lot to give here and to live there, but to have the disposition of giving, that spirit of generosity and detachment, because my heart is in the right place.

On a certain day, Our Lord is going to come and ask us to settle accounts with Him, to determine how well or ill we have administered His gifts. Those gifts may include intelligence, health, material things, a capacity for friendship, and the power to give joy to those around us.

Our Lord will come only once, perhaps when we least expect Him, like “a thief in the middle of the night” (Matt. 24:43) or like “lightning flashing across the sky” (Matt. 24:27). We won’t have a second chance. He has told us that He wants to find us well prepared.

Tying ourselves down to the world, forgetting that our end is in heaven, will lead us to live a disoriented life of complete idiocy. “Fool” is precisely what God calls the man who lives only for the world.

Probably we teach our children not to use the word “fool” and never to call anyone “a fool.” On this occasion, it’s a strong word for God to use. But really, he is a fool.

We certainly have to walk with our feet on the ground. We have to take care of safeguarding our future and that of our family, those who depend on us.

But we cannot forget that we are pilgrims on a journey, no more than actors in a show. “No one is permanently made king or wealthy because, at the end of the performance we will all find ourselves as paupers,” says St. John Chrysostom.

In a play, it doesn’t matter who plays the part of the king or who plays the part of a servant. What matters is how they play their part. Sometimes, it is the supporting actor that gets the Oscar.

Worldly goods are but the means for us to attain the goal which the Lord has pointed out to us. They can never become the ‘be-all and the end-all' of our existence.

That is why it is a very good thing to bring families on visits to the poor. Or have children see that you go out of your way for those who have less. Or that if you stop doing something, or make your family think twice, or you're going to give an extra cake to some poor family that doesn't have one.

Or just to see if we can maybe adopt a child or foster a child for a certain period. Or share the good things that our family has, like our home, or the roof over our head, maybe with some orphan or some disadvantaged family, at least to give them a period where they can live a little better if we cannot manage it on a permanent basis.

Our life on earth is short and limited. Our Lord says to him, “This night your soul is required of you.”

We can often think of death in terms of something remote. We can often think that we will live forever.

We can give an awful lot of importance to other people’s deaths and to other people’s funerals. We could spend an awful lot of time at other people’s funerals when perhaps we did not give those people, when they were alive, the attention or the money or the concern that might have done them a lot of good.

Yet Our Lord speaks of “this night.” Our days are numbered. We are in the hands of God. Within a few years, maybe not that many, we will find ourselves face-to-face with Him. We have to “walk while we have the light” (John 12:35).

Meditating on our end can motivate us to sanctify our work, “redeeming the time” (Eph. 5:16) as though to make up for lost time. Our Lord gives us the chance to make up in the future for the sins and the errors, or the selfishness of the past.

This thought can help us to take advantage of our circumstances, to make reparation for our sins, to become detached from earthly goods.

One day, like any other day, will be our last on earth. We don't know when that is going to be. On this very day that we are speaking, thousands of people have died or will die in the most diverse circumstances. Many of them were probably unaware that their time was up, and that they would have no more time to improve.

Some have died with their hearts immersed in things of little or no importance in terms of eternal life. Others have died who have been involved in the same activities but have kept their sights on God.

The passing things of this world cannot be the source of our true joys. It is these latter people that have come into possession of that marvelous treasure which “neither dust nor moth can consume” (Matt. 6:20).

At the moment of our death, when the state of our soul is fixed forever, God may say to us that same word that He said to this rich man, “Fool!”

Afterwards, it is impossible to change. The destiny which awaits us is a consequence of our behavior on earth. “If a tree falls to the south or the north,” we are told in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie” (Eccles. 11:3).

This is the reason for Our Lord’s frequent warnings for us to be on the watch (cf. Matt. 24:42-44; Mark 13:32-37). Death is not the end of existence, but the beginning of a new life.

Christians can't write off or minimize the importance of our temporal existence since it is the very means by which we prepare for our definitive life with God in heaven. To yield a rich harvest before God, we have to sanctify this same ordinary life and our use of material goods.

Every other lifestyle is built upon sand. The Psalms say, “Surely every man stands as a mere breath! Surely man goes about as a shadow! … man heaps up and knows not who will gather” (Ps. 39:5-6).

Since the goods of this world are intended for the glory of God, we should use them with a sense of detachment, not complaining when they may be lacking. The absence of some good, if it is God’s will, should not take away our peace.

If we find that our fortunes have changed, the winds have blown in a different direction in our life, maybe we had many things once, and now we have nothing—that is a divine call to look upwards.

We should know how to be happy in times of prosperity and in times of adversity. Whether we are rich or poor, we should share what we have with others: by creating new jobs, if that is in our power, by promoting works of culture and formation, or by giving generously to the good works of the Church.

By considering our death we can also learn how to make good use of the days that remain to us—by living in the state of grace, getting to Confession frequently, receiving the Blessed Eucharist frequently.

“We cannot lose any time,” says St. Josemaría, “for time is short. … I understand St. Paul very well when he writes to the Corinthians: Tempus breve est, time is short (cf. 1 Cor. 7:29). How brief is our sojourn upon the earth! For a coherent Christian, these words are to ring true in the depths of the soul. They are a reproach for our lack of generosity and a constant invitation to loyalty. Truly, we have so little time to love, to give, to do penance” (Josemaría Escrivá, cf. Friends of God, Point 39).

Meditating on the eternal truths can be a good antidote against sin and a real help towards giving Christian meaning to life. These thoughts can inspire us to pay proper attention to our daily work, our relations with others, and our duties of charity toward those most in need. That’s our way to heaven.

As soon as Our Lady learned of her divine vocation, she went with haste into the hill country (Luke 1:39). She thought of Elizabeth. She went quickly to help her. She spent time there. She went out of her way into the hill country.

Mary, may you teach us to make better use of our time, to savor the opportunities that are within reach every day, so that we may not be like this rich man, but use all the abilities, talents, time that you have given us for the great goal for which we have been created.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

NJF