We are presented on a daily basis with everything that we ever want if we could pay for it. What do we do? We tend to buy what we can when we can or even when we can't and go into debt so that we can have what we want. Be it a car or a house or a phone or a boat or... Then we moan about the debt or about the burden of paying it back, we very rarely think about the future at such times. If we do think about our future then we ensure that we have plenty of financial worth to live of in our retirement years. We give no thought about others in the community and even if we have wealth we tend to ensure that what goes out has some form of benefit to us in the end, whether through recognition or eventual investment payback. The reality becomes all about us rather than anything else and our thinking whether it is in spending or saving is for ourselves much like the rich landowner who saves everything for a rainy day (Lk 12:16-20).
Is this what God wants of us or is this what we have always done and continue to do despite being called into a different mode of living? Paul, seems to indicate that this is what we always do prior to our accepting God's presence through Christ into our lives (Col. 3:6-10). These are the things that are meant to have been stripped from us in our acceptance of the way of Christ. Yet, in our own hubris we have not neglected these but in some ways we have increased their hold on us. We are conditioned by the society we live in not by our enduring faith. For us, as Christians it should be the other way around, we should be conditioned by our enduring faith rather than by the society around us. Yet, over multiple generations the communities that we live in have taken up the understanding that we hoard our wealth rather than use it for the greater good. There have been very few societies that have looked at the greater good of the individuals rather than at the selfish needs of the individuals. In doing so we have engendered this greedy outlook so that justice and peace are purely symbols of something that is unattainable and a constant future state.
We lavish our wealth on ourselves and neglect God's presence in our lives. Yet, God is the one person who persists in loving us irrespective of our neglect of God. God's lament of faithlessness is seen in Hosea (11:1-9) and how the persistence of love for God's people continues on despite our movement away. God's love is a total outpouring into the world and in favour of those he loves (the whole of humanity who are made in God's image). We are asked to mirror that love in Christ and in action within our own circumstances even if it means beggaring ourselves for the sake of God. In doing so we are being faithful to God and knowing that God will be faithful to us and not allow ourselves to be forsaken. This is a difficult road to walk as we are putting ourselves into the hands of the unknown rather than our own wants and wishes and the comfort of what we have earned. Even when we are on the cusp of wealth and peace within our own lives we must still look beyond to those who are unable to afford what we have. It is pointless for us to hoard our worldly goods when others are being impoverished.
In the Gospel parable, there is nothing about giving to those beyond or outside the community. It is based within a rural community much the same as that which Ruth and Naomi entered. It means that there were rich and poor living cheek by jowl, just as we have in this community and in our surrounding communities. Tragedy strikes at the heart of our comfortable life but is more prominent when it is away from us. We think we are doing our best by contributing towards the other that is apart from us whilst neglecting those that are closest to us. In the story and the context of the time the wealthy person was encouraged and expected to contribute to the welfare of the community. The stored grain was not going to go anywhere except for distribution on his death. There was no point in hoarding it. There is no point in our own hoarding whether it be toilet rolls or our finances or our love, we cannot spend it in the end. We are thus asked to put our love and our lives and our wealth to care for those in the community beyond our own circle.
