Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch
October 17, 2022
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Luke 12:13-41
When Jesus uses the word “fool” as he does in Luke’s Gospel, we know that he is dead serious. It was not that the rich man had a great harvest or even that he built a bigger barn to store all his grain and other goods. It was really a time for rejoicing and making further plans for his crops. Jesus calls him a fool because he equated his wonderful harvest with a guarantee that he would live long enough to “eat, drink, and be merry”– as though the more stuff he had, the longer he would live.
The man made the mistake of speaking to himself as though HE was God. Notice how he talks to himself: “I shall eat, drink and be merry FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.” Jesus points out that as humans, no man can guarantee his future life. We are not urged to live in fear, however. We are simply to live with realistic awareness because sometime in the future we will end our journey on earth. But we ourselves do not determine that.
The time we have on earth–even if it includes benefits of a long and rich and easy life–is limited. When death comes we have only ourselves to present to the Lord. We take nothing with us.
