Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs[In the Dioceses of the United States], Monday, October 19, 2026

Gospel

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,

“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”

He replied to him,

“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”

Then he said to the crowd,

“Take care to guard against all greed,

for though one may be rich,

one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Then he told them a parable.

“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.

He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,

for I do not have space to store my harvest?’

And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:

I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.

There I shall store all my grain and other goods

and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,

you have so many good things stored up for many years,

rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’

But God said to him,

‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;

and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’

Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself

but is not rich in what matters to God.”

Reflection

In today’s Gospel, someone in the crowd asks Jesus to intervene in a dispute over an inheritance. We are not told whether this person is in the right or if his brother is being unfair. Instead of allowing the dispute to become the focus, Jesus uses the moment to teach a greater lesson providing a parable and saying, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions".

Jesus is not condemning wealth or possessions themselves. Rather, He warns us against allowing them to become the center of our lives, believing that the more we have, the more secure or fulfilled we will be. The rich man in the parable spends his time planning how to store his abundant harvest so that he can enjoy a life of comfort for years to come. Yet, he never considers what his life means beyond what he owns. He assumes he has plenty of time, only to be reminded that his life is not his to control.

This Gospel reminds us that no matter how much we accumulate in this life, we cannot take any of it with us when we die. Ultimately, what matters is not how much we own, how successful we are, or how comfortable we have made ourselves, but whether we have lived in a way that makes us “rich toward God”.