Gospel Meditation
August 3, 2025
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 12:13-21
Recent studies suggest that millennials will be the first generation in America to be worse off than their parents in terms of financial earnings and job status. Many lament this. I propose that this week’s Gospel provides a hopeful way to see the trend as good news.
The Lord Jesus says, “Take care to guard against greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist in possessions” (Luke 12:15). Greed damages us with the deception that we are what we possess. But to Jesus, this is simply not true. What makes us happy is who we are, who we become.
Does not the expectation that every generation should do better than their parents subtly mask the poison of greed? A similar attitude is mirrored in the man who demands that Jesus justly arrange his share of the family inheritance. Despite the injustice, Jesus will not play that game. In fact, he seems to prefer that the man have less than his parents. What good would having more be to this man if he becomes enslaved and miserable by greed? What good would it be for us to have more if it means we become much less?
In allowing the man to have less, Jesus opens a space for him to become more: a man free to love. In that much more meaningful sense, perhaps he was better off than his parents. Maybe the millennials will be, too.
— Father John Muir
©LPi