Luke 12:13-21

A man in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’ ‘My friend,’ he replied, ‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.’

Then he told them a parable: ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.” But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?” So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’

 Reflection

In the parable we are party to the interior conversation of the man with lots of assets. We all talk to ourselves at times, for a variety of reasons. One of the interesting aspects of this man’s conversation is who he addresses: he has a conversation with himself, and in that conversation he decides to speak to his soul.  

In his words to his soul the man dispenses himself from further work and gives himself permission to have a good time, on the basis of his accumulation of material goods.  It sounds as if he is trying to quiet his soul, which may have been an inner voice proposing that he use his goods for more altruistic, less selfish purposes, and his time for more spiritual purposes. 

To understand why the man’s soul might be giving him messages he didn’t want to hear, we only need to compare what the man said to his soul about his intended lifestyle with what St Teresa of Avila says the soul yearns for: 

“From this recollection there sometimes proceeds an interior quiet and peace that are full of happiness because the soul is in such a state that it does not seem to lack anything, and even speaking wearies it; it wishes to do nothing but love.”  

The man may have thought that having a good time was the path to happiness. The happiness of the quietness of the soul which St Teresa describes is not associated with the possession of material goods. The man was looking in the wrong place for happiness. 

In the parable and in Jesus’ words which preceded it there is also an indication that security does not necessarily bring happiness. A lot of human energy goes into providing security, and the acquisition of material goods is for many people more about security than about conspicuous consumption. Living with an element of insecurity is not easy, and some people have no choice but to live with this stress.  

If we have access to goods adequate for our needs, then there are deep questions - how much is enough, do we need any more, and if we think we do, for what purpose?  Answering these questions and making changes as a result requires considerable courage.