Welcome

This is a blog that I post to several times a week although not necessarily daily. These reflections are triggered by the scripture found in the lectionary used by many Christian denominations. While I am part of the Catholic tradition, these posts are not --or rarely--sectarian. I try to put myself in the space of a of Jesus Christ and listen to words that come to me as I read and pray the scriptures. Each post also includes a photograph. These rarely have any connection to the content of the post but are simply pleasing images that I capture as I make my pilgrimage through life.

Monday, October 17, 2016

So, what's in your barn?

Port of Pittsford in mid October
"‘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 the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” Luke 12:20-21
This parable speaks so directly to me that I get uncomfortable when I hear it and even more uncomfortable when I reflect on it.  It touches me in some tender spots.  Using comedy, George Carlin did the same thing with his routines on "stuff."  "Everybody's gotta have a little place for their stuff. That's all life is about. Trying to find a place for your stuff." 

The message of the parable is clear.  If your barn--your life--is filled with stuff and not with the spirit of the Divine One within, you have focused on the wrong things.  I don't have a barn and I don't have crops but I do have an IRA and a savings account.  From time to time I check the balances to see where I stand.  When things are good and the balances are stable or even growing, I feel safe and secure and begin to relax.  Perhaps I even begin to make plans to spend some money on extra things or special experiences.  When the balances are declining, I begin to feel vulnerable and I might begin to worry.

Being financially responsible and secure is obviously good.  It provides a sense of calmness in my life.  But if it all ends there, then like the farmer in the parable, I am putting my faith and hope in the wrong things.  I have filled my barn up money, security, strategies rather than with the faith and hope of the Divine One.  It is not about being rich or being poor.  Fullness of life is about being filled with the Divine One, not my self.

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