Reflections
The danger of greed Readings Between the Lines Father Glenn LeCompte
“(Jesus) spoke a parable to them: The land of a certain rich man bore fruit abundantly. So he deliberated within himself, ‘What shall I do? For I do not have a place where I will store my produce.’ Then he said, ‘I will do this; I will tear down my barns and I will build larger ones, and I will store all the grain and my goods there. And I will say to myself, ‘Self, you have many goods laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, enjoy yourself.’ ‘But God said to him, ‘Fool! This very night your soul will be demanded back from you. The things which you have prepared, whose will they be?’ Thus it is for the one who stores up treasure for himself and does not grow rich (in relation to) God” (Luke 12:16-21, translation by Rev. Glenn LeCompte). Jesus speaks the foregoing parable in response to a request by a person that Jesus arbitrate an inheritance dispute in the petitioner’s family. Jesus distances himself from the person’s request because it deals with a preoccupation with temporal goods, a preoccupation which can be detrimental to possessing eternal life. The parable illustrates the spiritual danger involved for those consumed with hoarding temporal goods. The parable, which will be read at weekend Masses July 30-31 this year, is a self-contained story in which there are two characters, a rich man and God. The human is never named, but only identified by a character trait; he is rich. The Greek adjective plousios (“rich”) is used 11 times in Luke’s Gospel always with a negative
connotation. For example, in 6:24 a woe is directed against the wealthy in view of the coming Kingdom, which will provide consolation to the poor and needy, but not for the rich who have been consoled by their possessions. The danger that attachment to material things presents is exemplified in the episode of a rich man’s reluctance to sell his possessions, give alms and follow Jesus (18:18-23). The rich man’s land yields an abundant harvest and his current storehouses are inadequate to store the amount of grain yielded. “What shall I do?” the rich man asks himself. There are several things he could do. He could donate the excess to the needy. He could sell the grain at a profit, but donate the excess to the poor. Such actions would be faithful to Jesus’ later exhortation, “Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy” (12:33). Instead the rich man decides to store up for himself goods that will benefit him only in this life. And because they can perish or be stolen, they may not provide comfort for the length of time he imagines. In addition to storing up the abundant produce of his crop, he also desires to hoard “goods” to make himself comfortable. The focus of his life becomes the comfort that material possessions can offer when he envisions himself resting, eating, drinking and
14 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • July 2022
making merry for the rest of his life. But herein is a catch in the parable! How long will his life last? The answer to that question is, not much longer. Enter the second character in the story, God. Parables always have an element of surprise, and the unexpected comes when God tells the rich man that his life will be demanded back that very night. The verb “to demand back” refers to the requirement of returning something which has been entrusted to a person, as can be seen in Jesus’ explanation (12:42-48) of the parable of the Faithful and Unfaithful Servants (12:35-40). The rich man does not realize that life is a gift from God, a gift to be returned. By deciding to use his overabundant material possession to comfort himself in life, he focuses on life as something he possesses and has a right to, as he does regarding all of his other material possessions. God begins the announcement of the rich man’s fate by calling him a “fool.” Being a fool is the opposite of being a wise person. Biblical wisdom is not just about being prudent or efficient, it involves doing what is morally right. In light of Jesus’ teaching elsewhere in Luke on the handling of material possessions, the rich man, by hoarding his goods, acts immorally. Moreover, his folly involves the fact that despite the rich man’s desire to make himself comfortable with an overabundance of material things that due to his sudden
