Dear friends in Christ

The message of the liturgy of this Sunday is stark: our life on earth is brief! Every life passes like the wind; barely a trace is left behind, according to the Psalmist. In the best of cases, we might amass a great fortune only for it to be left to others. What does life add up to? Is it all for nothing? As we are reminded in the First Reading of the Mass: Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. Nevertheless, the human heart has tremendous capacity to see the things of the world without paying attention to the supernatural meaning of life. The human heart tends to become attached to worldly goods as the only one goal in life, forgetting what is really important. In the Gospel of the Mass, our Lord takes advantage of a question about inheritance to teach us about the true worth of things in the light of eternity. He puts before us the subject of death, our own death, to make this point: ‘The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, what shall I do, but I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and then I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' The Lord teaches us that putting our hearts into the pursuit of worldly things is foolishness. Jesus wants us to meditate on eternal things, which will be the antidote to sin and the pursuit of pure pleasure. May this thought inspire us to pay proper attention to our daily life and tasks, to our relations with others and to our duties in charity towards those who are most in need. This will be our way to Heaven.

God bless you!

Msgr Kevin Hale