Eat, Drink, Be Merry, and Die

One thing I discovered when I became a homeowner is how much work keeping up a house really is. My wife and I are very grateful for our house and the previous owners were as well. It was kept up very well and has served many people well. Yet, regardless of its good condition, the house still requires almost continuous maintenance of some degree to keep it in good shape.

At the same time, almost anything we acquire can require some sort of ongoing investment to maintain. I once heard someone say, "The more stuff you have, the more time you spend taking care of it." Along these lines, the more things we have the more of our lives we spend taking care of things rather than people. And I have noticed (even in my own life at times) that it is all too easy to get so wrapped up in taking care of our stuff that we forget why we are taking care of it. This leads us to the question at point. Why do we spend so much time acquiring and caring for our stuff? What is the reason we have what we have? And what is the reason caring for our things can preoccupy our thoughts?

Yesterday's gospel reading for the Mass was quite a thought provoking and convicting one. It was the story about the farmer who had a great harvest and tore down his old barns to build new bigger ones. Is there anything wrong with that? No. But what was really his motivation behind building bigger barns for his crop? His motivation was to rest, eat, drink, and be merry for years to come. He was thinking about his own satisfaction. An even harsher description comes to mind, GREED. Hoarding thing for his own pleasure.

What was the farmer's alternative? Maybe sharing the surplus with those in need or using the extra blessing the Lord gave in the harvest to bless others as well.

So, what do we (I/you) invest our time and talents in? And how do we invest the fruits that come from those things? What do we do with the fruit of our labors? This question is important because we need to remember that it is God that brings forth the fruit. We just plant the seed and do the work.

If we have difficulty processing these questions, perhaps we could see them a little more clearly from the perspective of the farmer...through the lens of death. "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?’" (Luke 12:20) If we were to die, what would be the value of all our stuff at that point? Would all your labor benefit others even at your death? Or would it be found worthless with the fruits to simply sit and rot or be thrown away?

"Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.” (Luke 12:21)

49,551,703 (NRLC)

Yesterday, my wife and I happened to catch part of the TV show "Ghost Whisperer."  In this episode, Jennifer Love Hewitt's character was trying to help a family cope with the loss of their young daughter.  Before my wife and I had our first child (a beautiful little girl) just under two months ago, I never really thought about what it would really feel like for a parent to lose a child.  But last night it really hit me, how painful it must actually be.

As I often do (and have been doing much more lately), I had to reflect on how that human parent-child relationship is also seen in our child-parent relationship with God, because every relationship on earth is an image of a spiritual reality.

So what is it like for God to lose a child?  Does it matter that much to him?  I mean, after all, there are so many of us humans.  Well, Scripture tells us that it hurts him so bad that he decided to offer his only begotten Son (from all eternity) in exchange for us, his created sons and daughters.  A reasonable conclusion at this point, is that it pains God greatly to lose a child, even one.  Didn't Jesus tell a parable about leaving 99 sheep in order to search out one that was lost?

If the pain of losing one child can destroy lives and rip people apart emotionally, then how much worse is it for God?  And if losing one child is that bad, then how about losing more than 49,551,703 children before they even get to see the light of day?