October 21 .  Covetousness.  Morris wondered, “Would people still today go to a priest to say, ‘Father, tell my brother to divide and share our father’s inheritance with me?’  Would they rather go to a lawyer and take the matter to court?   What message would someone expect to hear from the Church?  Would it be the words of Jesus,” take heed and beware of all covetousness, for a man’s life is much more than what you own.”  Luke’s Jesus speaks against envy and greed which are so rife today and challenges the rich to share.  But Luke also warns, “Don’t be trapped into legal disputes with family and friends.”

Reflect, share, act. Scripture: “Fool, this night your soul is required from you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Luke 12:13-21 Pope Francis: When people become self-centred and self-enclosed their greed increases.  The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume.  It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality.  LS204.  Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor and the enabling them to be fully a part of society.  EG187    Action and Prayer.    How attached am I to my possessions or what I believe is owed to me? Pray: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in us the fire of your love, so that walking together we may renew the face of the earth.