Monday 19 October 2020 - 29th week of Ordinary Time - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12, 13-21 - Blessed are the poor in heart, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Everyone has their own way of knowing Jesus; here, in the crowd listening to him, someone dared to say to him: "Master, tell my brother to share our inheritance with me". He knows that Jesus is the Master and he dared to ask him to share his inheritance, thinking that as a just Master, He would be impartial. The wrong of this man is not to recognise Jesus at his true value, only out of greed and avarice. We may make the same mistake: overestimating or underestimating someone by putting him in a place that is not his, causing chaos and turmoil. Jesus answers this man clearly: "Man, who then established me to be your judge or the arbiter of your divisions?" This seems to mean: "Your request is inappropriate, I am neither judge nor arbiter".

As soon as we talk about inheritance, we are talking about material goods and that is what we aspire to most, even if it is ephemeral; rarely do we think about the eternal inheritance, which is heaven. It is this perishable inheritance that so many families break up. It is a tragedy. Ancestral wisdoms such as family unity, hospitality, mutual aid, are nothing more than empty words; and worse still, the status of children of God, born of the same One Father, is threatened by division and segregation: social or family conflicts poison the ecclesial community. The words of Jesus are clear: "Beware of all greed, for a person's life, even in abundance, does not depend on what he possesses". Let us be neither greedy nor avaricious; let us avoid isolation but be open to others; let us not cling to temporal riches, but let us aspire to the eternal. Let what is given to us serve to help others and to love God: this is what it means to accumulate in God. Amen.