Be Rich in What Matters to God

10/22/2018

Step #1: Lectio / Read

Click the link below or open your Bible to the passage and read through the reading at least once, paying attention to what is happening in the text.

Luke 12:13-21

Step #2: Meditatio / Meditate

Use the following meditation to help you reflect more deeply on the Scripture (you may want to read the passage again).

In order to understand today’s Gospel more fully, we have to take a step back at what was happening before it. Preceding this account, Luke tells us that there were so many people crowding around Jesus and the Apostles that the crowd was literally trampling one another (12:1). In the midst of this crowd, what follows from our Lord is a thoughtful look into what genuine discipleship is. He turns to His disciples and reminds them not to be hypocrites like the Pharisees, setting the stage for why He’ll be sharing the parable He does in today’s Gospel.

There seem to be two ways you can take today’s words from Christ. On the one hand, there is the obvious: don’t be greedy and obsess over accumulating material things. And yet, there is a deeper spiritual significance to this passage I’d like to reflect on with you.

In the Gospel a man from the crowd asks Jesus to tell his brother to share his inheritance. In these times, when your father passed away, the family would receive an inheritance of all his possessions, the largest portion of which would go to eldest son. He gets the most land, possessions, and wealth. This man who is pressing Jesus in this passage is essentially saying: “I want as much as my brother has." So what does Jesus tell him instead? “Guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions…the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?”

Apply this to your life: are you spiritually and personally greedy with God? Are you envious of the happiness or gifts He has given others? Do you constantly desire God give you more than what you have – happiness, success, gifts, talents, etc.? Do you desire that God give you more than others? If so, we’ve fallen into the same kind of greed and hypocrisy that Jesus warned His disciples not to fall into going into this Gospel reading when He was talking about the Pharisees.

I think we all fall into this. There are many times absolutely in my own day to day life that I am tempted into this kind of spiritual and internal greed: “Jesus, I wish I was happier. Jesus, I wish I were better than that person at such and such. Jesus, I wish I had the life or gifts that they have.”

Jesus offers us the life-giving alternative: be “rich in what matters to God”. What matters to God? You do. Namely, that, come what may, you live in the simple truth that God has made you for Himself, has given Himself completely to you, and calls you home to Himself in a unique path of love that will glorify Him through gifts, talents, and possessions singular to your path of holiness.

All God wants is you, all of you, exactly for who He has made you to be. Love Him with all you are today. AMDG.

Step #3: Oratio / Pray

These questions are to be used to talk to God; have a conversation with the Lord about these questions and what is going on in your heart as you pray today.

How are you spiritually and personally greedy with God?

Do you constantly desire God give you more than what you have – happiness, success, gifts, talents, etc.?

How can you be rich in what matters to God?

Step #4: Contemplatio / Contemplate

In this step, you listen. Stop talking, let God speak to your heart. You may repeat one of these short phrases to focus your mind on the Lord.

"Be rich in what matters to God.”

"I matter to God."

"I must bring glory to God."

Step #5: Actio / Act

In light of today's reading and your time spent in prayer with the Lord, what concrete action or actions will you take to let this encounter with the Lord bear fruit in you today?

God wants you. What is one thing you can do to live for Him?

Smartphone Lock Screen

The following image is here for you to save and use as a background or lock screen on your smartphone or device to help you carry today's Lectio Divina with you the rest of the day.

Today's prayer was prepared by Matthew Maxwell, a graduate of Franciscan University and currently working as a Youth Minister in St. Louis.

If you have anything you'd like our team to pray for, please go to the page of our website called "Prayers" and let us know how we can pray for you today.

CARPE VERBUM