For that night was known before by our fathers, that assuredly knowing what oaths they had trusted to, they might be of better courage. So thy people received the salvation of the just, and destruction of the unjust. For as thou didst punish the adversaries: so thou didst also encourage and glorify us. For the just children of good men were offering sacrifice secretly, and they unanimously ordered a law of justice: that the just should receive both good and evil alike, singing now the praises of the fathers.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 33: 1, 12, 18-19, 20-22 A psalm for David. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just: praise becometh the upright. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance. Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him: and on them that hope in his mercy. To deliver their souls from death; and feed them in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord: for he is our helper and protector. For in him our heart shall rejoice: and in his holy name we have trusted. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in thee. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance.
Second Reading: Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19
Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not. For by this the ancients obtained a testimony. By faith he that is called Abraham, obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he abode in the land, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise. For he looked for a city that hath foundations; whose builder and maker is God. By faith also Sara herself, being barren, received strength to conceive seed, even past the time of age; because she believed that he was faithful who had promised, For which cause there sprung even from one (and him as good as dead) as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. All these died according to faith, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar off, and saluting them, and confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers on the earth. For they that say these things, do signify that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out, they had doubtless time to return. But now they desire a better, that is to say, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son; (To whom it was said: In Isaac shall thy seed be called.) Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Where upon also he received him for a parable.
Gospel: Luke 12: 32-48 Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands. And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come. And Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all? And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing. Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth. But if that servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming; and shall begin to strike the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk: The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers. And that servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.
In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus' teaching concerns, precisely, true wisdom and is introduced by one of the crowd: "Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me" (Lk 12: 13). In answering, Jesus puts him on guard against those who are influenced by the desire for earthly goods with the Parable of the Rich Fool who having put away for himself an abundant harvest stops working, uses up all he possesses, enjoying himself and even deceives himself into thinking he can keep death at an arm's length. However God says to him "Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Lk 12: 20). The fool in the Bible, the one who does not want to learn from the experience of visible things, that nothing lasts for ever but that all things pass away, youth and physical strength, amenities and important roles. Making one's life depend on such an ephemeral reality is therefore foolishness. The person who trusts in the Lord, on the other hand, does not fear the adversities of life, nor the inevitable reality of death: he is the person who has acquired a wise heart, like the Saints.
In addressing our prayer to Mary Most Holy, I would like to remember other important occasions: tomorrow it will be possible to profit from the Indulgence known as the Portiuncola Indulgence or the "Pardon of Assisi" that St Francis obtained in 1216 from Pope Honorius III; Thursday, 5 August, in commemorating the Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major, we will honour the Mother of God, acclaimed with this title at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and next Friday, the anniversary of Pope Paul VI's death, we will celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. The date of 6 August, seen as crowned by summer light, was chosen to mean that the splendour of Christ's Face illuminates the whole world.
Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 12:13-21) begins with the narrative of a man who stands up among the multitude and asks Jesus to settle a legal matter concerning a family inheritance. However, Jesus does not address the matter in his reply, but rather urges the people to eschew covetousness, that is, the greed of possession. In order to divert his listeners from this exhausting search for wealth, Jesus tells the parable of the foolish rich man who believes he is happy because he has had the good fortune to reap an exceptional harvest and he feels secure thanks to the goods he has accumulated. It would do you good to read it today; it is in the 12th Chapter of Saint Luke, verse 13. It is a beautiful parable that teaches us a great deal. The narrative comes to the fore in the contrast between what the rich man plans for himself and what God plans for him instead.
The rich man puts three considerations before his soul, that is, himself: the accumulated goods, the many years that these goods appear to ensure him, and thirdly tranquility and unrestrained enjoyment (cf v. 19). But the word that God addresses to him nullifies his plans. Instead of “many years”, God points to the immediacy of “this night; tonight you will die”. Instead of the “enjoyment of life”, He presents him with “surrendering his life; you will render your life to God” with the ensuing judgment. Regarding the reality of the ample goods accumulated on which the rich man had based everything, it becomes shrouded in sarcasm by the question: “and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (v. 20). Let us think about quarrels over inheritance, many family quarrels. And how many people; we all know some stories about many people, who turn up at the time of death: nephews, grandchildren come around to see: “what is my share?”, and they cart everything away. It is within this contrast that the term “fool” — because he thinks about things that he believes to be concrete but that are fantasy — with which God addresses this man, is justified. He is foolish because in practice he has denied God, he has not taken Him into account.
The end of the parable as recounted by the Evangelist is uniquely effective: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (v. 21). It is a warning which reveals the horizon towards which we are called to look. Material goods are necessary — they are goods! —, but they are a means to live honestly and in sharing with the neediest. Today, Jesus invites us to consider that wealth can enslave the heart and distract it from the true treasure which is in heaven. Saint Paul also reminds us of this in today’s second reading. It says “seek the things that are above.... Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:1-2).
It is understood that this does not mean estranging oneself from reality, but rather seeking the things that have true value: justice, solidarity, welcome, fraternity, peace, all things that make up the true dignity of mankind. It is a case of leading a life that is fulfilled not according to a worldly manner, but rather according to the style of the Gospel: to love God with all one’s being, and love one’s neighbour as Jesus loved him, that is, in service and in giving oneself. Covetousness of goods, the desire to have goods, does not satisfy the heart, but rather causes more hunger! Covetousness is like those tasty candies: you take one and say: “Ah! It is so good”, and then you take another; and one follows the other. Such is covetousness: it never satisfies. Be careful! Love that is understood and lived in [the style of the Gospel] is the source of true happiness, whereas the exaggerated search for material goods and wealth is often a source of anxiety, adversity, abuse of power, war. Many wars begin from covetousness.
May the Virgin Mary help us not to be attracted by forms of security that fade, but rather to be credible witnesses of the eternal values of the Gospel, each day.
S.JOHN PAUL II - ANGELUS - August 10, 1980 "FAITH is the basis of things hoped for and proof of things not seen"(Heb 11:1). With these words the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks to us in the second reading of today's Mass. FAITH, which moves man from the world of visible things to the invisible reality of God and eternal life, resembles that journey, to which was called by God Abraham - qualified therefore as "father of all those who believe" (cf. Rom. 4:11, 12). Later we read in the Letter to the Hebrews, "By FAITH Abraham, called by God, obeyed by setting out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and set out without knowing where he was going. By FAITH he stayed in the promised land . . ." (Heb 11:8-9). Yes, it is. FAITH is the pilgrimage spiritual in which man sets out, following the word of the living God, to arrive at the land of peace promise and happiness, to union with God "face to face"; to that union that will fill, in the heart of humanity, the deepest hunger and thirst: the hunger for truth and the thirst for love. Therefore, as we hear later in today's Sunday liturgy, the attitude of spirit, which befits the believer, is the attitude of vigilance: "You also be ready, for the Son of man will come at the hour you do not think of" (Luke 12:40). Such vigilance is also an expression of the spiritual aspiration to God through FAITH.
FAUSTI - This parable describes the man who makes consist his own safety in the accumulation of goods . It is the opposite of the disciple whose safety is in the love of the Father and of the brothers. Our life is not in goods, but in the One who gives these to us. God's wisdom has foreseen that the satisfaction of needs that we have it become means to fill the need that we are: communion with the Father who gives and the brothers with whom we share. This is the realm of sons, our real treasure. If you don't accept your identity, you identify yourself with what you own. Instead of to serve yourself of the world as its lord , you serve it as your lord. To have more is the first clumsy attempt to save himself suggested by the fear of death. If you make depend your life by what you have, you destroy what you are. In fact the life is from the Father; for this you are the son and brother to all. If your life is from the things, He isn't Your Father any longer. Your Father and your brothers are your antagonist. And the same things that before were "by" God "for" you, these change meaning : you are "from" them and "for" them and you sacrifice your life to what have to guarantee it. What you have and own, it gives you death if you consider it as aim rather than means. You are slave of it and however much you possess,you will never be full, because other is the bread that feeds you. For deception man has abandoned the "fountain of living water, to dig broken cisterns that hold no water" (Jer 2:13): he has placed as a principle of one's own life the fear of the death, rather than the ' love of the Father' of life. The fruits of the ground are God's blessing (Deuteronomy 28). Those who receive them as a gift are blessed themselves Those who take them for a possession, they cut them from their source and ithey are cursed. To receive them as a gift means to employ them remembering that they are from the Father and for all the brothers. This concrete love of the Father and of the brothers, which espresses oneself , respectively, in praise and in mercy,it is the whole law. Whenever Israel will be living with the master spirit, Israel will go into exile. The forgetting of the gift is the path of exile; the memory and converting the return date. Moses warns the people, warning him not to say never "is my" what will be given to the promised land (Deut 8.7 to 20). Whoever wants to possess is actually possessed by what he possesses. He is no longer free, but a slave. Just as for Adam being in the garden is linked to obedience to God, so for Israel being in the promised land is linked concretely to not taking possession of the gift. God has ordered not to possess and not to accumulate, but to thank for the gift and to share. Obedience to His Word introduces one into rest (promised land), where one eats (lives), drinks (loves) and rejoices, because in satisfying primary needs one also satisfies the essential: the love of the Father and of one's brothers and sisters! Possession is contrary to thankfulness, and is against God; accumulation is contrary to sharing and is against men. The rich man, who aims to have more, isolates himself more and more from others and cages himself in his solitude. Foolishness is consumed in the complacency of goods, making them one's own life and safety. "Rest, eat, drink, enjoy": this is man's life program. Goods, in God's plan, would serve for this! But it is foolishness to believe that one can achieve it by following the path of having more. Foolishness consists in the fact that death is not avoided by what the fear of death has suggested. Fear is, in fact, bad counselor, and it throws into the arms of what is feared. The consciousness of death shows me my deepest being: my absolute solitude before Him, which can only be filled by Him, my rest, my food, my drink and my joy.
First Reading: Wisdom 18: 6-9
RispondiEliminaFor that night was known before by our fathers, that assuredly knowing what oaths they had trusted to, they might be of better courage.
So thy people received the salvation of the just, and destruction of the unjust.
For as thou didst punish the adversaries: so thou didst also encourage and glorify us.
For the just children of good men were offering sacrifice secretly, and they unanimously ordered a law of justice: that the just should receive both good and evil alike, singing now the praises of the fathers.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 33: 1, 12, 18-19, 20-22
A psalm for David.
Rejoice in the Lord,
O ye just: praise becometh the upright.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord:
the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance.
Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him:
and on them that hope in his mercy.
To deliver their souls from death;
and feed them in famine.
Our soul waiteth for the Lord:
for he is our helper and protector.
For in him our heart shall rejoice:
and in his holy name we have trusted.
Let thy mercy, O Lord,
be upon us, as we have hoped in thee.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord:
the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance.
Second Reading: Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19
Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not.
For by this the ancients obtained a testimony.
By faith he that is called Abraham, obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he abode in the land, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise.
For he looked for a city that hath foundations; whose builder and maker is God.
By faith also Sara herself, being barren, received strength to conceive seed, even past the time of age; because she believed that he was faithful who had promised,
For which cause there sprung even from one (and him as good as dead) as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
All these died according to faith, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar off, and saluting them, and confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers on the earth.
For they that say these things, do signify that they seek a country.
And truly if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out, they had doubtless time to return.
But now they desire a better, that is to say, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son;
(To whom it was said: In Isaac shall thy seed be called.)
Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Where upon also he received him for a parable.
Gospel: Luke 12: 32-48
EliminaFear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom.
Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands.
And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately.
Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open.
Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come.
And Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all?
And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing.
Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth.
But if that servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming; and shall begin to strike the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk:
The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers.
And that servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.
THE WORDS OF THE POPES
RispondiEliminaBENEDICT XVI . ANGELUS
Sunday, 1st August 2010
In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus' teaching concerns, precisely, true wisdom and is introduced by one of the crowd: "Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me" (Lk 12: 13). In answering, Jesus puts him on guard against those who are influenced by the desire for earthly goods with the Parable of the Rich Fool who having put away for himself an abundant harvest stops working, uses up all he possesses, enjoying himself and even deceives himself into thinking he can keep death at an arm's length. However God says to him "Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Lk 12: 20). The fool in the Bible, the one who does not want to learn from the experience of visible things, that nothing lasts for ever but that all things pass away, youth and physical strength, amenities and important roles. Making one's life depend on such an ephemeral reality is therefore foolishness. The person who trusts in the Lord, on the other hand, does not fear the adversities of life, nor the inevitable reality of death: he is the person who has acquired a wise heart, like the Saints.
In addressing our prayer to Mary Most Holy, I would like to remember other important occasions: tomorrow it will be possible to profit from the Indulgence known as the Portiuncola Indulgence or the "Pardon of Assisi" that St Francis obtained in 1216 from Pope Honorius III; Thursday, 5 August, in commemorating the Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major, we will honour the Mother of God, acclaimed with this title at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and next Friday, the anniversary of Pope Paul VI's death, we will celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. The date of 6 August, seen as crowned by summer light, was chosen to mean that the splendour of Christ's Face illuminates the whole world.
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS Sunday, 4 August 2019
Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 12:13-21) begins with the narrative of a man who stands up among the multitude and asks Jesus to settle a legal matter concerning a family inheritance. However, Jesus does not address the matter in his reply, but rather urges the people to eschew covetousness, that is, the greed of possession. In order to divert his listeners from this exhausting search for wealth, Jesus tells the parable of the foolish rich man who believes he is happy because he has had the good fortune to reap an exceptional harvest and he feels secure thanks to the goods he has accumulated. It would do you good to read it today; it is in the 12th Chapter of Saint Luke, verse 13. It is a beautiful parable that teaches us a great deal. The narrative comes to the fore in the contrast between what the rich man plans for himself and what God plans for him instead.
The rich man puts three considerations before his soul, that is, himself: the accumulated goods, the many years that these goods appear to ensure him, and thirdly tranquility and unrestrained enjoyment (cf v. 19). But the word that God addresses to him nullifies his plans. Instead of “many years”, God points to the immediacy of “this night; tonight you will die”. Instead of the “enjoyment of life”, He presents him with “surrendering his life; you will render your life to God” with the ensuing judgment. Regarding the reality of the ample goods accumulated on which the rich man had based everything, it becomes shrouded in sarcasm by the question: “and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (v. 20). Let us think about quarrels over inheritance, many family quarrels. And how many people; we all know some stories about many people, who turn up at the time of death: nephews, grandchildren come around to see: “what is my share?”, and they cart everything away. It is within this contrast that the term “fool” — because he thinks about things that he believes to be concrete but that are fantasy — with which God addresses this man, is justified. He is foolish because in practice he has denied God, he has not taken Him into account.
The end of the parable as recounted by the Evangelist is uniquely effective: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (v. 21). It is a warning which reveals the horizon towards which we are called to look. Material goods are necessary — they are goods! —, but they are a means to live honestly and in sharing with the neediest. Today, Jesus invites us to consider that wealth can enslave the heart and distract it from the true treasure which is in heaven. Saint Paul also reminds us of this in today’s second reading. It says “seek the things that are above.... Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:1-2).
It is understood that this does not mean estranging oneself from reality, but rather seeking the things that have true value: justice, solidarity, welcome, fraternity, peace, all things that make up the true dignity of mankind. It is a case of leading a life that is fulfilled not according to a worldly manner, but rather according to the style of the Gospel: to love God with all one’s being, and love one’s neighbour as Jesus loved him, that is, in service and in giving oneself. Covetousness of goods, the desire to have goods, does not satisfy the heart, but rather causes more hunger! Covetousness is like those tasty candies: you take one and say: “Ah! It is so good”, and then you take another; and one follows the other. Such is covetousness: it never satisfies. Be careful! Love that is understood and lived in [the style of the Gospel] is the source of true happiness, whereas the exaggerated search for material goods and wealth is often a source of anxiety, adversity, abuse of power, war. Many wars begin from covetousness.
May the Virgin Mary help us not to be attracted by forms of security that fade, but rather to be credible witnesses of the eternal values of the Gospel, each day.
S.JOHN PAUL II - ANGELUS - August 10, 1980
Elimina"FAITH is the basis of things hoped for and proof of things not seen"(Heb 11:1). With these words the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks to us in the second reading of today's Mass.
FAITH, which moves man from the world of visible things to the invisible reality of God and eternal life,
resembles that journey, to which was called by God Abraham - qualified therefore as "father of all
those who believe" (cf. Rom. 4:11, 12). Later we read in the Letter to the Hebrews, "By FAITH Abraham,
called by God, obeyed by setting out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and set out without knowing where he was going. By FAITH he stayed in the promised land . . ." (Heb 11:8-9). Yes, it is. FAITH is the pilgrimage
spiritual in which man sets out, following the word of the living God, to arrive at the land of peace
promise and happiness, to union with God "face to face"; to that union that will fill, in the heart
of humanity, the deepest hunger and thirst: the hunger for truth and the thirst for love.
Therefore, as we hear later in today's Sunday liturgy, the attitude of spirit, which befits the
believer, is the attitude of vigilance: "You also be ready, for the Son of man
will come at the hour you do not think of" (Luke 12:40). Such vigilance is also an expression of the
spiritual aspiration to God through FAITH.
FAUSTI - This parable describes the man who makes consist his own safety in the accumulation of goods . It is the opposite of the disciple whose safety is in the love of the Father and of the brothers.
RispondiEliminaOur life is not in goods, but in the One who gives these to us.
God's wisdom has foreseen that the satisfaction of needs that we have it become means to fill the need that we are: communion with the Father who gives and the brothers with whom we share. This is the realm of sons, our real treasure.
If you don't accept your identity, you identify yourself with what you own.
Instead of to serve yourself of the world as its lord , you serve it as your lord.
To have more is the first clumsy attempt to save himself suggested by the fear of death.
If you make depend your life by what you have, you destroy what you are.
In fact the life is from the Father; for this you are the son and brother to all.
If your life is from the things, He isn't Your Father any longer.
Your Father and your brothers are your antagonist. And the same things that before were "by" God "for" you, these change meaning : you are "from" them and "for" them and you sacrifice your life to what have to guarantee it.
What you have and own, it gives you death if you consider it as aim rather than means.
You are slave of it and however much you possess,you will never be full, because other is the bread that feeds you.
For deception man has abandoned the "fountain of living water, to dig broken cisterns that hold no water" (Jer 2:13): he has placed as a principle of one's own life the fear of the death, rather than the ' love of the Father' of life.
The fruits of the ground are God's blessing (Deuteronomy 28).
Those who receive them as a gift are blessed themselves
Those who take them for a possession, they cut them from their source and ithey are cursed.
To receive them as a gift means to employ them remembering that they are from the Father and for all the brothers.
This concrete love of the Father and of the brothers, which espresses oneself , respectively, in praise and in mercy,it is the whole law.
Whenever Israel will be living with the master spirit, Israel will go into exile.
The forgetting of the gift is the path of exile; the memory and converting the return date.
Moses warns the people, warning him not to say never "is my" what will be given to the promised land (Deut 8.7 to 20).
Whoever wants to possess is actually possessed by what he possesses. He is no longer free, but a slave.
Just as for Adam being in the garden is linked to obedience to God, so for Israel being in the promised land is linked concretely to not taking possession of the gift. God has ordered not to possess and not to accumulate, but to thank for the gift and to share.
Obedience to His Word introduces one into rest (promised land), where one eats (lives), drinks (loves) and rejoices, because in satisfying primary needs one also satisfies the essential: the love of the Father and of one's brothers and sisters!
Possession is contrary to thankfulness, and is against God; accumulation is contrary to sharing and is against men. The rich man, who aims to have more, isolates himself more and more from others and cages himself in his solitude. Foolishness is consumed in the complacency of goods, making them one's own life and safety.
"Rest, eat, drink, enjoy": this is man's life program.
Goods, in God's plan, would serve for this!
But it is foolishness to believe that one can achieve it by following the path of having more.
Foolishness consists in the fact that death is not avoided by what the fear of death has suggested. Fear is, in fact, bad counselor, and it throws into the arms of what is feared.
The consciousness of death shows me my deepest being: my absolute solitude before Him, which can only be filled by Him, my rest, my food, my drink and my joy.