Daily Gospel Reflection for October 17, 2016 - St. Ignatius of Antioch

Today's Gospel: Luke 12, 13-21

Inheritance.

A loaded term. I grew up in a beachside community where a young family could buy a house for low five figures and see it worth well over a million dollars at the end of their lives. More often than not, the children who inherited these homes would fight over the house and its contents. Otherwise rational people who got along all their lives would be at each other's throats for stuff.

We don't want to hear that money and possessions bring problems of their own. One of the most pernicious illusions is that money solves all problems. Jesus' answer to the man about his inheritance shows that he knew greed was at the root of the request, particularly since He followed it with the story of the rich fool. Notice the rich fool only refers to himself - the idolatry of me, myself and I - I can tear down, I can build bigger, and so on.

Let us continually practice being "rich for God" and in what matters most to God, rather than seeking to be rich only for ourselves.

Ponder:

What circumstances do you need to be aware of that might lead you to put money and/or things above your relationship with God?

Pray:

Dear Lord, please grant me wisdom to be a good steward and help me in every circumstance to remember what is important to You. Amen.

Copyright 2016 Diane Sherlock

Diane Sherlock is a Catholic (RCIA '99!) mother of two grown children. She's also a novelist, screenwriter, and actress. She recently adapted her flash fiction, The Green Bench, about a mother coping with her son's schizophrenia, into a short film. She has a blog, fosters kittens, and is writing a memoir to help other incest survivors heal.