Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 / Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 / Luke 12:13-21
It is not a pleasant experience to be reprimanded or scolded.
We would also feel embarrassed and offended if we are reprimanded or scolded in public.
Very often heated arguments and even fist-fights are a consequence of some reprimanding or scolding.
But that also reveals this fiery anger within us that can erupt into a sudden violence.
And we don't only react when we are reprimanded or scolded.
We also have a few sharp things to criticize about others.
We may not like the behaviour or attitude of some people, or how they talk, or what they wear.
We wish we can just tell them off, even publicly, so as to teach them a lesson.
But of course, we are smarter than that, and we also don't want to get ourselves into trouble.
So, we will use third-party means to hit at those we want to reprimand or scold.
In other words, we want to get others to do the dirty work for us.
And that is like what we heard in the gospel.
A man in the crowd said to Jesus: Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.
And Jesus replied: My friend, who appointed me to be your judge or arbitrator of your claims?
In effect, Jesus was telling that man to go and resolve that matter himself.
But Jesus went on further to give a teaching on avarice, which is an extreme greed for wealth or material gain.
And He also told a parable to emphasize that a man's life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than enough.
In that parable, the rich man wanted to hoard more and more so as to be secure and comfortable for the rest of his life.
And then in the parable, God spoke: Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul. And this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?
It is not often that Jesus would portray God as reprimanding with such sharp words.
The one word that summarizes the teaching in the parable is the word “Fool”.
The 1st reading would call that vanity. Whether it is foolishness or vanity, in the end it comes to nothing.
Because without God, everything comes to nothing.
A story has it that a grandfather was teaching his grandson about good and evil.
The grandfather said: There are like two lions within me. One is a white lion and the other is a black lion, and they are always fighting against each other.
The grandson asked: So, grandpa, who will win?
The grandfather replied. The one that I feed, that one will win.
In the spiritual life, we have to make a decision between God and greed.
The 2nd reading says that greed is the same thing as worshiping a false god.
In our greed, we want to possess things. But what we want to possess, will eventually possess us.
But when we turn to God and put our lives in His hands, then we will focus on the heavenly riches of love, kindness, generosity, gentleness, understanding and compassion.
May we also share these heavenly riches with those who need to be freed from foolishness and greed.