Lk. 12: 13-21
The willingness to share can be considered as the fundamental principle of Christian living. In our context, wherein the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer, the parable of the rich fool has a message for us. I would like to quote an incident that happened recently and shared by my companion:
Mr. Joseph (name changed), the sole bread winner of his family passed away due to a massive heart attack. He left behind his wife and two children. The eldest of them Mary (name changed), aged nineteen could not complete her PU studies because of an accident. After having consulted several doctors and having undergone few surgeries, her hand was still not able to function as it was before. The second child, a boy, was one and half years old. After the death of the father, the situation at home was quite difficult. The mother couldn’t go for any work because both the children needed proper attention and care.
Initially, her family members were helping, but that didn’t last long. Some seminarians who were ministering to the people of that locality came to know of the plight of this family and reached out to help. They tried to arrange some medical help for the daughter but the family was not ready to cooperate due to their other financial needs. Therefore, the seminarians tried to help them financially in the little ways they could. She was quite optimistic about finding a job which would settle the dust. However, she couldn’t find a job with a salary that she expected. Before the seminarians left for the summer ministry, they helped her to pay the house rent as she was on the verge of vacating the house due to delay in the payment of the rent.
During the summer ministry time seminarians could not keep in touch because of the demand of the ministry. Once they returned, they felt a strong inner urge to meet this family. One of them strongly felt that this family is in urgent need of financial assistance; but they could not make the visit immediately due to various circumstances. One day they decided to visit the family. They collected some money from like-minded people and went to their house with great joy. When they reached in front of their quarters, they met one of the neighbours of the family. As soon as she met them she told: “brother, do you remember that lady, the mother of that small child, you used to visit? She passed away yesterday evening due to fever…” it came as a shock to the seminarians. The girl told that her body was taken to her ancestral place… they went back to the seminary with a heavy heart… if they could visit them at least two days before… if they had bothered to act according to their inner promptings, probably they could have given her a ray of hope in her moments of struggles, that someone cares and loves them… But, did it matter anymore?
I quoted this incident not to judge anyone but to just contextualize the parable, that situations of our time are not different from those at the time of Jesus. It is alarming to observe that people are confining to their own comfort zones and not willing to get involved in the lives of others. The people are not that so willing to share their resources with others. By sharing their resources no one has gone bankrupt. Nowadays there is a growing tendency to amass wealth and secure the future. This mode of life style is absolutely against the spirit of Christianity. I am responsible for my neighbour and so for his/her well being. When we get back to the roots of Christianity, this spirit is visible in a tangible manner. In the early church, the faithful lived this spirituality of sharing and caring. They did not have anything in private, so they sold all their belongings and contributed everything to the church. The apostles used to distribute this wealth according to each one’s need. It was a community that was rich in love; at that time the Church was poor but they were filled with the joy of being a Christian, the follower of Christ. Two thousand years have gone by and we should ask this to ourselves, “where are we now?”
It is true that the Church has become institutionalized and we have so many institutions catering to the needs of the poor. But the saddest thing is that it has become the mission of a minority in the church. If a person dies in a parish because of poverty or isolation, then who is responsible? Can we only blame the parish priest? What about the religious in that locality? What about the faithful of that parish? It is true that we need money to live, however; we are not living for money. In our attempt to amass wealth and secure the future, don’t we trust in the providential care of our Abba who provides for our daily sustenance? The gospel of the day concludes with an insightful message let us try to be rich in the sight of God… The logic of heaven is different… we become rich by sharing our time, talents riches and above all our own selves with others and not by amassing wealth for ourselves…
If someone could have reached out to that Holy Family…