A good Sunday to all.

Despite some quarrels, siblings generally love each other as long as their parents live, even if they are old or sick. Siblings have a point of reference and a reason to get together, but when the parents are no longer present, relationships begin to dilute, and one tends to focus on one's interests, children, and grandchildren and they see each other less and less. But the real problems usually arise when the inheritance must be divided. The inheritance that must be divided is the one that divides families because when it comes to money, even the best people can lose their heads and see nothing but their interest. And this is also true among Christians.

It is rare to find believing brothers who, before starting to talk about the inheritance, take the Gospel in their hands because they want to follow not the criteria of this world but those of Jesus of Nazareth that the Gospel proposes to us. And this is very rare. And this happens even among Christians because it happens that there is a brother who doesn't have a house and another with five or six houses, but he demands what is due to him. Sometimes with the help of some wise friends, the parties manage to reach an agreement, but other times the discussions lead to offenses and feed the grudges that last for years, and sometimes the brothers do not even talk to each other anymore.

These things happen today, and they happened in Jesus’ time. Why? Because the criteria for the management of goods are the same today as they were then, and if the underlying criteria are the same, it is not expected that they will give different results. There will be disagreements, hatred, grudges, conflicts, and there is no point in resolving a particular case... yes, it can be resolved, but you must cure the problem at the root. It is the criteria of asset management that must be verified. This is what Jesus will do in today's Gospel passage. We listen to what happened:

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” 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.”

Jesus was amid the crowd, addressing heartfelt words to his disciples, announcing to them that because of the Gospel, they would face opposition and persecution. He recommended: 'Do not be afraid; they may even take your life, but one day it will be revealed who made the right choice and who ruined his existence instead. He was talking about a significant subject when one of the attendants intervened and interrupted him. We would have expected him to ask for clarification or raise an objection, but NO. He doesn't seem to be interested in the subject; he wants Jesus to solve his problem; he wants Jesus to take sides with him regarding the inheritance.

The one dividing this inheritance should be the eldest brother who, according to the Torah, was entitled to two-thirds of it because he was obligated to support his mother if she was still alive and his sisters if they were not yet married. Probably he had not respected the rules, and the younger brother was suffering injustice. Therefore, he appealed to Jesus. What would we have done? We would have thought twice before getting involved in this matter, we know that it is always very delicate. In the book of Proverbs, chapter 26 says that to get involved in an argument, in a dispute that does not concern us, is like grabbing an angry dog by the ears; better not to do it.

Most likely, we would have felt a little bit annoyed because someone was interrupting us while we were holding our speech and annoyed, especially because of the way, because of the imperative: 'Tell my brother'; in fact, the Greek verb is an aorist imperative 'eipé' and, therefore, must be translated: 'Tell immediately to my brother to give me what is due to me.' We often hear this imperative also addressed to priests: 'Father, tell my husband, tell my son, tell certain Christians...'.

Jesus says: “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” It seems an unkind response. In reality, Jesus simply wants to mark a certain distancing from the subject; he has spoken of the inheritance twice but not of the one his interlocutor has in mind. A doctor of the law asked him one day, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" One cannot give himself life, it is received in inheritance. Also, the life of the Eternal can only be received in inheritance; one cannot give it to oneself. And when the biological life ends, everything ends if this inheritance is not received. And Jesus will give the answer how to prepare to receive this inheritance.

Another one, this time a rich nobleman, who asks him the same question how to inherit the life of the Eternal. Jesus will also answer him, saying, 'sell all that you have, distribute it to the poor, and you will receive this inheritance.' In a dialogue that Jesus has with his disciples, he again introduces this discourse about the inheritance: 'Those who have left house, fields, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children for the sake of the Gospel shall receive a hundredfold here in this world, and then eternal life as an inheritance.'

This is the inheritance that interests Jesus. It clearly shows a certain detachment from this inheritance of which this man speaks. Jesus' answer: 'Friend'; he calls him friend, unnamed, precisely because the message is addressed to all of us; it is a new logic to unite humankind. "Who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” 'I am not a scribe; I am not a rabbi'; they are on the prowl of these problems because they make much money, like lawyers today. They are the constituted authorities to solve these cases according to the criteria of their justice. Soon we will see that they are criteria that Jesus does not accept because from these criteria are born disagreements, hatred, and even wars. Jesus wants to introduce his justice in the world, a new justice.

He invites us now to look for the root of evil to diagnose the disease. Where do the problems, this discussion, this argument, this argument you have with your brother? First, it's from not being clear to whom the goods of this world belong, who is the owner. It is necessary to clarify it; otherwise, there are problems. For the pagans, the goods of this world belong to those who have had the good fortune to find them in their hands; they earned them from those who have accumulated them legally by profiting in exchange, never in work; working one does not get rich; it is in the exchange that one earns, and it is clear that, if it belongs to him, one can administer it even when he is dead; that is to say, he can leave them in inheritance. Jesus says they are not his. This righteousness practiced by people that produces all these problems is a lie because nothing belongs to man. Everything is God's, everything is his gift.

Psalm 24, in the first verse, says: "The earth is the Lord's, and all that is in it." This is an undeniable truth; nothing is ours. Material goods are God's which he has prepared to meet the needs: food, clothing, the health of all his sons and daughters. And spiritual goods are also his: intelligence, ability; life itself does not belong to us; it has been given to us. We have received everything as a gift. This is the truth.

So, if only God is the master, only He can leave it in inheritance; not the biological father, because he is not the master; it is God who can leave in inheritance, from generation to generation, to all his sons and daughters. In fact, in Israel, the land from which the people received their food (they were all farmers and herdsmen), could not be bought or sold because the land belonged to God. It could be left in the inheritance always remaining God's property; therefore, it was impossible to add house to house, field to field; this was acting outside God's plan.

And now the rebuke of Jesus: Of the cause of all evils, divisions, and even wars. (he says): “Take care to guard..." Let us translate the meaning of the Greek imperatives present literally, meaning 'continue to beware,' continue to keep away from all kinds of greed. Here is the evil, the danger that has a name, in Greek πλεονεξίας = 'pleonexias,' which comes from 'pleon éfein,' to always want to have more; the greed to have more and more. This is the disease, the danger that Jesus wants to warn us about. We dehumanize ourselves if we allow ourselves to be involved in this evil.

Where does this innate greed that everyone experiences come from, this frenzy of always wanting to accumulate more? It comes from the desire we all experience to cling to life. We see that life is slipping from our hands, as the wise man says: Every second that passes is life that is gone. How to retain it? That is the deception; the fear of death tells us to cling to this world's goods. They nourish life, but they deceive you into thinking that by possessing these goods, through them, you retain life.

‘Pleonexia' is the firstborn daughter of the fear of death. It is an illusion; it is the solution offered to you by goods. Jesus does not despise material goods as did the cynical philosophers, but woe betide if their accumulation becomes the goal of life. Jesus goes on to say: 'Even if they are in abundance, the success of a life does not depend on the accumulation of goods.’ Today, to be somebody, one must have a lot of money. This is the deception; Jesus says that the success of a life is not measured by the goods one has accumulated. This is madness. The evangelical wisdom is found in a beautiful text of the first letter to Timothy, chapter 6:7ff.

I want to read to you this short passage: "For we brought nothing into the world, just as we shall not be able to take anything out of it.” They are not ours. “If we have food and clothing, we shall be content with that. Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation and into a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains." They deceive themselves with goods. And I want to read to you a passage from the book of Qoheleth; he's one of the wisest men humanity has ever known. In chapter two of his book, he makes a reflection; he imagines himself to be Solomon, who had everything in life. He has been able to accumulate all the goods and listen to what he says in the name of Solomon. Now he speaks in the name of Solomon: I said in my heart, “Come, now, let me try you with pleasure and the enjoyment of good things.” See, this too was vanity. I built myself houses and planted vineyards ... I acquired male and female slaves... I provided for myself male and female singers and delights of men, many women. I accumulated much more than all others before me in Jerusalem Nothing that my eyes desired did I deny them, nor did I deprive myself of any joy.” Conclusion: "I detested life.” A hedonist who comes to the end hating life. The administration of goods that should be for life, if they are managed by 'pleonexia,' this disease leads you in the end to hate life.

Let's go now to the parable that Jesus narrates to confirm what he is saying:

Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’

Let's be careful when we hear a parable because the one who tells it to us wants us to identify ourselves with one of the characters, and Jesus is a master in the use of parables. In our case, there is no possibility of misunderstandings, he wants us to identify with that lucky farmer, kissed by fortune; he wants us to come to say, 'I would like to be me instead of that man.' And he introduces him in an extremely sympathetic way; he's a hard-working, forward-thinking man; and God also blesses him because the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 28, says that 'the fruits of the earth are a blessing from the Lord.'

Then, it doesn't say that he was a thief, that he committed injustice; so presumably, he was an honest person, therefore, he should be happy; but now he has a problem, ‘what will I do with the goods that I have now?’ That farmer is you. Take note that you have so many goods in your hands and now you must decide what to do. It is not only about money but about all the goods that constitute the wealth of your person, your intelligence, your abilities, your good character, the good luck that you have had to be able to study and get two or three degrees... now, what do you do with this wealth?

There is a memorable page from Basil of Caesarea. I want to read a little excerpt: 'Notice, this farmer is unhappy because of the fertility of his fields, for what he has and even more unhappy because he does not know what to do with them. What awaits him? For him, the earth does not produce goods but sighs; the abundance of fruits gives him much worry and anxiety. He complains like the poor. His cry, 'what shall I do,' is it not the same as the cry of the pauper? Where shall I find food and clothing? The rich man makes the same lament; he grieves. That which brings others joy kills him; he does not rejoice when the granaries are full. The superabundant and uncontainable riches do him harm. He fears that a few drops will dampen it. It is a cause for concern, like a needy man.

"What shall I do?" His reasoning occupies the central part of the parable; and he finds the solution: "I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods.” This is the choice he makes. Jesus says, be careful because you also reason in the same way: ‘This wealth that I have I keep for myself.’ The farmer makes the wrong solution. Instead of letting these goods reach the destination for which they were made. It has been given to us but this fortune has recipients. He blocks them and retains them for himself. Instead of satiating the hunger, instead of answering to the needs of those around him; with the granaries, he prevents the goods from reaching the recipients.

I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” How sad! This man only realizes that life is also to eat, drink, rest, enjoy... No, he has spent his life accumulating; he has not lived. Let's also note that he does not plan unbridled revelry, no... these we find them in chapter two of the book of Wisdom, in the mouth of the young men who say, ‘our life is short, and therefore let us enjoy it, let us enjoy the present good things, let us take advantage of the creatures with youthful ardor, let us intoxicate ourselves with exquisite wine, with perfumes, let us lose nothing in the springtime of our life; let us crown ourselves with buds of the roses before they wither.’ No; this is a hymn to unbridled hedonism that we also feel in our present society.

Through the eyes of this farmer, we capture his ideal of life, which can be ours. If Jesus manages to make us identify with this character, we see that the pleonexia, the accumulation of goods leads to reasoning in this way: 'now I can rest and enjoy life.' This is the result. An unhappy life program because it is devoid of love; this man is alone. We wonder if this man had a family, wife, and children; if he had neighbors, workers... Of course, they were by his side, he lived among people, but he didn't see them. He had no time for these people, he had no energy to spend; he couldn't think about them, and he didn't cultivate feelings. He was only interested by those who talked about goods and suggested how to get good results in the field; he thought about crops, in the barns.

In his mind, there was nothing else and, of course, the one who was excluded from everything was God. Goods were the idol that created for him the emptiness that surrounds him and dehumanizes him. We realize that, in this parable, in this monologue of the farmer, 59 words are used. Fourteen refer to 'I' - 'mine.' There is only he. This is the danger that Jesus wants to denounce. You admire this farmer but be careful because you also involve yourself in using these goods. ‘What am I going to do? I'm going to enjoy life, rest, and now you can do whatever you want...’ You have withdrawn into yourself. Possessions produce this problem: they make you forget the recipients of your fortune.

An old rabbi was talking about the danger of riches and said to one of his disciples, 'go to the window and look through the window; what do you see?' 'I see a poor man begging for alms; I see also a mother with a child in her arms; and a laborer driving a loaded donkey.' Then the rabbi took a silver paper; (in Hebrew, silver is 'kesef' and also means money). He put the silver paper in the window, and it became a mirror. And then he told his disciple to go and look out of the window, 'what do you see?' 'I see myself.' Did you understand? If you put money in front of your eyes, you don't see people anymore, you only see what interests you. This is the danger of wealth.

Now that Jesus has gotten you to sympathize with this farmer, it's to make you understand that you are the lucky one who has all these goods to manage. If you think about managing them like this farmer, you are a failure in life. In fact, now enters another character whose judgment is the one that counts in the end. Let's hear how he thinks:

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?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”

Now, suddenly, in the parable, a second character enters the scene; it is God, and we do not like him very much because he behaves incomprehensibly; he doesn't let this man, who has worked so hard, enjoy his pension. We don't like this character, and Jesus doesn't want us to like him precisely because it affects the reasoning that this farmer has made, and these reasonings are ours. If we don't like it means that now the judgment which is pronounced by this personage who is God, is for us too.

Of course, it was not God who made him die; he died of stress, too many worries, problems, insomnia, every noise took away his sleep because he thought they were thieves. And also, too much work. In short, he died of a heart attack. The trial: the projects this man has in mind, the use of his goods is cumbersome. Jesus says he is mad; Jesus says: 'afron,' which in Greek means an inconsiderate one, one who does not reflect, imprudent, a poor man to be pitied.

Why is he called a madman? For several reasons. The first mistake he made from which then derived all the others: he did not consider that at some point comes the takeover of these assets; he did not consider that our life has a beginning and a conclusion. Abundance has made him forget that wealth, and goods, are precarious, and that it is foolish to cling to the heart. In the eyes of the world. This man's reasoning is considered wise; even many Christians, when they hear that one can afford to buy ships, airplanes, travel to space, they come to say 'how lucky he is.' NO, he is not lucky; he is a madman according to the judgment of Jesus.

This farmer wanted to secure his future, but he went the wrong way; he did not bet on what remains but on what perishes; so that in the customs of life they requisition you; there the goods that you have do not pass, your titles are requisitioned, they do not count for anything on the other side. There passes the way how you have administered these goods. If you have administered them for love, love passes through that custom.

Wealth deceives you because you put away from your mind the thought of death. In the past, this thought was used to frighten. Today we are in the presence of the opposite phenomenon, but equally harmful. We try to make people forget that at the very moment we started to live, we also begin to die. See how far into madness wealth takes you, precisely in the presence of death, because inheritance is divided when there is a death.

Greed causes it to be eliminated at that moment the thought of death. This is one of the unmistakable symptoms of insanity. This farmer is paranoid, he does not live in the real world, but in the one he has built for himself and imagines as eternal. Psalm 90 has reminded him: 'The years of our life are 70 or 80 for the stoutest. Teach us, Lord, to number our days, and we shall become wise.'

This man is paranoid; he does not understand that his goods are requisitioned in the end, and then what does he think? To continue enjoying them through the children and the grandchildren. 'You're paranoid; your life is over, and when you go through customs, you can't carry these goods.' The Qoheleth was not paranoid; we heard it in the first reading; he was inviting a reflection on inheritance, and he wisely said: "What then does man get out of all the toils and cares that weary him under the sun? (Qo 2:22). I must leave the fruits to my successor, who I know not whether he will be wise or foolish. 'He who has not labored at all will enjoy the fruits of my labor; even this is vanity and a great evil.' Also, Psalm 39: 'Every man is but a breath; he heaps up stores without knowing for whom.”

Now comes the second error, which is denounced at the parable's end: He has laid up treasures for himself. The fact that he has produced much wealth because he worked, because he was determined, he was lucky, is not condemned, but because he accumulated for himself. He is mad because he did not understand that one becomes rich in humanity, one grows as a person, not by accumulating goods for himself but by giving these goods to make somebody happy, out of love, give them to the recipients, who are the poor in need.

The program of this farmer for his future is not very different from what many Christians propose. When they say, 'I spend as I see fit,' 'it's the money I've accumulated from my hard work,' 'I can afford to travel, cruises, vacations, parties...' You reason like the farmer. Nobody tells you not to rest but to watch; you are thinking of yourself; you risk committing the sin of omission. There are many brothers and sisters who need your service. If you withdraw into yourself, if according to your possibilities, capacity, preparation, if you do not continue to do good to your brothers and sisters until the end of your days, for Jesus, you are a madman.

The third error of this farmer: he does not enrich himself before God; he has excluded God from his life; he has replaced him with an idol. The aim of his life was wealth; he thought of nothing else. How does one become rich before God? Jesus explains it to us a little later in the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 12:33ff), when he says: “Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”

Only one thing we can take with us at the end of our life, which follows us everywhere even beyond death. Not the goods but the works of love; not what we have had and hoarded for ourselves, but what we have given. This we can carry with us always, even beyond death.

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.