Apparently, this misguided man, who asked Jesus’ assistance as an impartial judge (Luke 12:13-21), had been living anxious years sustained doggedly by the conviction that a favorable share of the inheritance would have solved most of his problems, and made him happy and care-free. 

However, with a terse warning Jesus exposes the fallacy of such a belief.   

Even a fair arbitration would have deepened the rift which the prospect of money had already created between him and his brother. 

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.”  

Far from solving most of one’s problems, far from making one happy and care-free, greed and lust for money can bring about such a degree of devastation that one’s life is robbed of its natural humanness and becomes incapable of cultivating even the most basic human relationship.  

Jesus’ warning must give us pause. We are members of the same live organism that is the Mystical Body of Christ (the Church) held together by a bond of love. 

Being God the ultimate, most impenetrable mystery of our faith, he reveals himself to us as being essentially a bond of love. Father and Son are bound to each other by a bond so tight that it is the third Person of the Holy Trinity. the Holy Spirit! 

Now, having been created in the image and likeness of this Triune God, in the Son Jesus, we are called to a life of intimate unity with him and with each other.  

However, dehumanized by greed and lust for money, people can turn into a grotesque caricature of that divine image and likeness in which they were created. 

How many divorces, family feuds, lawsuits originate from greed and/or lust for money! 

How many lies, perjuries, acts of deception and silencing of consciences have resulted in the complete devastation of entire families and groups!  

As a priest who has heard confessions for over 53 years, I can assure you that the victims of these harsh devastations are many, and greed acts as an intoxicant which keeps them from realizing the folly of their predicament.  

The one pointing out this foolishness, as Jesus assures us, is God himself: 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?’ 

In the 1st reading, Qoheleth concurs. (cf. Eccl. 2:21-23) 

One of the precious gifts from the Holy Spirit is the gift of wisdom. 

There might have been times in which we, too, succumbed to this foolishness; and we might have thought that money could serve us better than ties of solidarity, friendship and love. 

The death of a parent should bring even estranged siblings to be reconciled on account of the absolute finality of their parent’s death. But what is evidenced too many times, instead, is the dramatic tear in their humanness.   

They are pulled in opposite directions: the bond of being made in the image and likeness of God, who is pure love, and their family tie pull them in the direction of reunion at any cost, but greed and lust for money pull them in the opposite direction.  

The tragic result is a combination of stubborn resistance and inner turmoil unbecoming of mere human beings, let alone of disciples of Christ! And this tear created by stubborn resistance and inner turmoil can be handed down to future generations. 

United into one Body, inseparable from Christ, bound together by the very tie that unifies the Holy Trinity, we should ask the Holy Spirit to help us regain our sanity so that we may nurture the ties of blood, friendship and love that we have. 

Furthermore, we shall ask the Holy Spirit to assist us in repairing those ties that might have been severed or are barely surviving the storms of any past folly of ours.  

And we also ask the Holy Spirit to help us widen the circle of our concern, loving service and care to include many others to be rewarded with inner peace and general wellbeing.  

These are the things that will make us rich in what matters to God because heaven is basically, in fact, exclusively a single bond of love meant to hold us together for all eternity in endless, joyful celebration. 

If we still struggle with bouts of foolishness generated by greed, the 1st reading and this gospel passage seem to suggest a reflection on death as a source of wisdom. 

Our coming to our senses can be expedited and intensified by prolonged visits to the graves of our deceased relatives and friends.  

There we would see that beyond any amount of wealth that they left behind, beyond all their toils and worries, what remains are solely the ties of love that they had established while among us.  

These must be the only ties on which we rely for our happiness here and in the world that awaits us.