18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel Bullet Points (Luke 12:13-21)

• WEALTH and GREED DO NOT MAKE A PERSON HAPPY. To be happy, one must follow Christ in POVERTY. This does imply that we cannot own goods. In itself, having material possessions is not inherently bad. Starvation, homelessness, and destitution are EVILS that society should eradicate. Christ is not happy that people go hungry. He does not want us to live in misery or destitution.
• Possessions are necessary in life. But possessions can assume such importance in one’s life that they become OBSESSIONS. When wealth becomes the BE-ALL and END-ALL of one’s existence, then GREED has undoubtedly CAPTURED the HEART so much so that one can no longer hear that urgent call of God.
•  One writer once said: “Money is an article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven ….and a universal provider of everything except happiness…… Sometimes we can be so obsessed with what money can buy and forget the things that money cannot buy.”