Our greed is our life

Our choices about what we carry from this life to the next are a topic of reflection from the texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today. The letter to the Ephesians reminds us of death like existence of being slaves to our passions with our transgressions dominating our concern. The text points to the free gift of salvation which manifests itself, as Friar Jude comments, in a life of vitality in Christ which will transition to the next life by falling asleep in the Lord. The Gospel from Luke challenges the degree of our complete dependence upon God when greed seems to be our strong motivator. Don Schwager meditates on the reality that our treasure is the thing upon which we most set our hearts. The parable from Luke encourages Jay Carney to remind us that a typically northern and western desire to choreograph our lives may take us away from the living our fundamental dependency on God and each other. The social message which we fail to hear is that our excess is gift from God and that gift is to be shared with those who have less.