Reading 1
Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill,
and yet to another who has not labored over it,
he must leave property.
This also is vanity and a great misfortune.
For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart
with which he has labored under the sun?
All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation;
even at night his mind is not at rest.
This also is vanity.
Reading 2
Col 3:1-5, 9-11
Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.
Gospel
Lk 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.”
Meditation: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
“Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3)
Imagine that it is fall and you are preparing flower beds for a spring garden. You buy packets of seeds that display pictures of dahlias, irises, and daffodils. But when you take the seeds out, all you see are very tiny flecks or ugly brown bulbs. They look nothing like the pictures, and you wonder how they will ever grow into those beautiful flowers.
Finally, spring arrives, and your garden is filled with an array of colors and fragrances. Although the lifeless seeds were hidden throughout the fall and winter, a marvelous force was at work transforming them.
In a similar way, we too were buried with Christ when we were baptized into his death and resurrection. Like those seeds, we were planted, hidden with Christ, waiting for the time when we could burst forth with a new and fruitful life.
This is a compelling image, isn’t it? But how long do we have to wait before this new life comes forth? Some of us may feel as if it’s been decades and still nothing has happened.
That’s where the second half of today’s reading comes in. The transformation described above is not magical. To a large extent, it depends on us. It’s up to us to put off our old lives of self-centeredness and sin so that we can be clothed with Jesus’ own love, kindness, compassion, and humility.
Put simply, it’s a matter of choosing to turn to Jesus in prayer and then working to conform our hearts to his, our minds to his, and our characters to his. It’s a matter of facing our everyday decisions in faith and trust in God, asking him to lead us and guide us.
The good news is that Jesus wants to transform us. Far from making it hard, he has already blazed the path ahead of us. Every day, he reaches out to us and pours his love upon us.
“Praise to you, Jesus, for putting my old life to death on the cross. By your Spirit, help me to receive your new life more and more each day.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions for Individual Reflection or Group Discussion
(Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23, Psalm 90:3-6,12-14,17; Colossians 3:1-5,9-11; Luke 12:13-21)
1. In spite of the negative tone in the first reading from Ecclesiastes, there is still an important message the Lord wants to convey to us in how we should live out our daily lives. How would you characterize this message?
2. The responsorial psalm, like the first reading, also appears to speak negatively of our earthly life. Yet the author has an important lesson he wants us to learn from the seemingly insignificance of our life when compared to the life of God. What do you think that lesson is? How does it relate to your life as a Christian?
3. In the letter to the Colossians, St. Paul says that we have been “raised with Christ,” but he also says that we have “died and our life is hidden with Christ.” What does St. Paul say should be happening in our daily lives as a result of being raised with Christ and as a result of having died in Christ? What steps can you take to make these a greater reality in your life?
4. The Gospel reading ends with the following verse after Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool, “Thus will it be for all who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God” (Luke 12:21). What are some of the things we can do that will store up heavenly riches? How does your earthly bank account compare to your heavenly one? What are some ways you can increase your heavenly riches as an individual, and together with others?
5. In the meditation, we hear these words: “The good news is that Jesus wants to transform us.” Yet we know we have a part to play in this transformation. How would you describe the part you need to play? How are you doing and what steps can you take to do even better?
No comments:
Post a Comment