Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
RICH BEFORE GOD
LETTER TO THE ROMANS:
We invite you to watch and listen to four videos of Fr. Claudio Doglio on the Letter to the Romans.
This is the second video: https://spark.adobe.com/page/Fd34MAsEfAiRn/
Introduction
Abraham was saved because he believed God and trusted him. Likewise, we will be saved because we believe, and the core of our faith is that Jesus was handed over to death because of our sins and was raised from the dead for our justification or salvation.
When Jesus speaks out against the rich, he does not intend to condemn them but to liberate them. What he denounces is not the fact that they have material goods, but their own attachment to them and the use they make of their riches: for hoarding, for selfish enjoyment, or – as some rich countries do – stockpiling wheat in silos or using oil for economic and political pressure. The value of possessions is relative to the goods of the kingdom, to justice and love. What counts is to be rich and wise before God.
Opening Prayer
Good and merciful God,
we often seek safety and security
in things to possess and to hold on to.
Do not allow things
to possess and control us.
When our riches mean poverty for others,
when our life means death for others,
teach us the joy of sharing
and give us the courage
to seek first the riches of your kingdom
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reading 1: Rom 4:20-25
Brothers and sisters:
Abraham did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief;
rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God
and was fully convinced that what God had promised
he was also able to do.
That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
But it was not for him alone that it was written
that it was credited to him;
it was also for us, to whom it will be credited,
who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was handed over for our transgressions
and was raised for our justification.
Responsorial Psalm: Luke 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75
He has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
Alleluia: Mt 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Lk 12:13-21
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.”
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!”‘
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.”
Intercessions
– For a poor and open Church, in which the People of God try to have open hands and hearts for all, we pray:
– For those who are rich and powerful, that they may learn to share; for the poor, the humble and the exploited, that they may find help and keep hoping, we pray:
– For all of us, that we may learn to enjoy the good things of life, especially friendship and affection, unity and compassion, people who inspire us, and even love of enemies, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
in this Eucharistic celebration,
you set for us the table of Jesus
and you let us share in the riches
of your grace and gratuitous love.
Give us eyes of faith to see
that this is an open invitation
to let others share in our abundance,
and at times, even in our poverty.
Help us to become selfless and generous
together with him who gives himself,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
you have enriched us with your Son.
Keep liberating us
from unreliable attachments
to things that are unimportant.
Give us rich hearts
that are neither possessed nor possessive
but that are free to love and to give
by the power of Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord for ever.
Blessing
“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions,” is Jesus’ word to us today. It is not to have an abundance of goods that will bring us happiness, but the goods of the kingdom of God, to be good and wise and just. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
A beautiful new day
“Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry”—such will be a very good life, or so we think. But will it not be a very boring life of only eating, drinking, and being merry all day and every day? Does the feeling of satisfaction from hunger differ between that of the rich who feast on a sumptuous banquet and that of the poor who survive on gruel? Or is our thirst quenched more with expensive sparkling mineral water than with ordinary tap water? An employer once remarked to her domestic helper, “Why is it that you don’t have money but you are always happy? And how come that we have money, but we are not happy?”
Life is not only a matter of eating and drinking, or of earning a lot of money and having a big investment and saving for the future. We need a purpose and goals in life for life to be worth living. And what could be better than a life lived for others: for one’s family, and friends, for those in need?
Such a life also makes one healthier and live longer besides making us unaware of the tedious passing of time. Every day that comes is a beautiful new day.