August 4, 2013: 18th Sunday in ordinary time

Sister Charles Van Hoy assists Family Day visitors with temporary tattoos.

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.” (Luke 12:13-21)

In The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, the children fall under the spell of the Queen, and they forget Aslan. Just as in Jesus’ parable, the rich man falls under the spell of all his possessions and forgets God and what really matters in life.

Action:

Take a few moments each day this week to thank God for one blessing in your life…your family, a friend, faith in God, a pet, your home, a special talent, plants, and so on.