Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (also optional Memorial of Saint John Paul II)
(Ephesians
2:1-10; Luke 12:13-21)
The farmer
in today’s gospel is not condemned because he is rich but because he only
thinks of himself. Jesus is careful to
say that his “land produced a bountiful harvest,” not the farmer himself. Yet he claims the harvest as his alone as if
he were creator, producer, and harvester of his crops.
In the
first reading from the Letter to the Ephesians the author, now believed to be a
disciple of Paul, also inveighs against the idea that human effort alone is
responsible for anything truly good. In fact,
he says that salvation is a free gift from God. In gratitude to God, then, humans do “good
works.”
The readings
make a similar point, which might be called the “gospel message.” We must avoid crediting ourselves for
salvation and thank God for it by loving service.
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