Friday, August 10, 2007

Friday, August 10, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 12:16-21

Then [Jesus] told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do for I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Prayer

What is it to be rich toward you, Holy Mystery? Is it not to reverence you in all places as the fountain of all life and blessing? Shall I not live in gratitude and humility, in soul recognition that every breath I take is the effluence of your unspeakable generosity?

I feel the sun and see how it opens the roses in their beds after the night rain. They praise you in electric red and whispering yellow. I delight in the curve of my grandson’s playful smile, so like his mother. Tears rise at the goodness of being alive, of knowing love and loving. I am startled and moved by the beauty of other souls. I am enlarged by the thoughts I receive as a gift from minds better than my own.

I could go on, Holy One; you know I can. I haven’t yet spoken of the love I feel in Jesus’ words, protecting me from the poverty of soul that withers so many. But you have taught my heart. I am a guest at the holy table of life, and you are the host who delights in giving, and in giving to me. This, I know, and it is richness and freedom.

For I know, too, what it is to be poor, small of soul. In poverty, I feverishly grasp what I can for myself. Fearing scarcity, I accumulate and accomplish what I can. I play the fool, vainly believing that I can secure my life and heart so that I will have enough, enough wealth, enough reputation, enough friends, enough of whatever I fear wanting. The soul closes in upon itself and implodes, disheartened and disconnected from the Holy Source of all that’s needful.

But today, I am not poor but rich in the love and blessing with which you would fill me and all that is. So let me, as my brother Jesus, pour the wealth of your generosity into every encounter and work I do that I may praise you as well as my roses.

Pr. David L. Miller