August 3: The Day of the Lord / El Día del Señor

The parable we hear today at Mass (from Luke 12, 13-21) puts before us a man who was very successful in the eyes of the world. He was not a criminal. He had good land that he used wisely, making him wealthy. He was not wasteful or careless. He built good, better, and then bigger barns to save and care for what he had. Jesus made no suggestion that he was unjust, but Jesus did say that the man was a fool, and the reason was that he lived completely in and for himself. Go back to Luke 12 and listen to the man's conversation! He talked to himself all the time. He never seemed to talk to God or to anyone else. He congratulated himself. He planned for himself, and all it got him was loneliness.

Some homework for this week: remember that, with every blessing in life, comes a duty. The man in the Gospel failed to realize this truth and it made him a fool – thinking everything he had was all his. “I earned it” is the way he thought. “I deserve it.”  That’s a fool talking. We are all in danger of being fools if we fail to realize that there is a duty that comes with every blessing. And part of our duty is to always be thanking God for His goodness to us.

Some wisdom for this week: what we deserve is an opportunity to do something for the glory of God – with what we have – while we can.

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Según Jesucristo y su Evangelio, esa es la verdadera riqueza: la riqueza del amor, que no disminuye cuando se la comparte, sino que por el contrario crece en el amor mutuo. El peligro de la cultura actual es que nos lleva a buscar la felicidad en el tener, en las cosas que se pueden comprar con el dinero. El consumismo lleva a acaparar todas nuestras energías y nuestro tiempo y nos esclaviza. Trabajamos para tener. No tenemos tiempo para cultivar nuestras relaciones familiares y nuestras amistades, para compartir con las personas. De esa manera la persona humana se va empobreciendo cada vez más.

Es importante reflexionar regularmente sobre el valor relativo de las cosas y riqueza que poseemos. Y, sí, disfrutemos sin escrúpulo de las cosas sencillas de la vida de cada día, que son regalos de Dios. Pero mantengámonos siempre libres, tal como Jesús nos ha liberado. No nos dejemos esclavizar jamás por nada, ni por nadie. Y compartamos unos con otros nuestra amistad, nuestras alegrías, y nuestros bienes. Para hacerlo posible, que la bendición de Dios nos acompañe siempre.