THROUGH UNTRUE
Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P.
Many people ask, “Is there life after death?” For us Christians, this has been definitively answered by Jesus when He resurrected from the dead. Our final destination is not the grave. We are meant to live forever. The crucial question is, “After I die, where shall I spend the rest of my life?” Our gospel reading today gives a categorical answer to this question. We either go to heaven or to hell, depending on what we do while we are on earth.
We would appreciate better the importance of our actions if we realized that our earthly life is limited. We read in the Book of Psalms: “What is man’s life, compared to yours, O Lord? Our life span is 70 years, or 80 for those who are strong. And most of these are emptiness and pain, they pass quickly, and we are gone” (Psalm 90:10).
Today, many people waste their precious time by increasing their possessions until these become grotesquely out of proportion with their needs. They have been brainwashed to think that buying more means having more, and having more means BEING more. We are obsessed with increasing our net worth while forgetting to improve our self-worth.
Our gospel reading today warns against such an attitude. To the man who spends his days hoarding more and more wealth, God pronounces this judgment: "Fool, this night your life will be demanded of you, and the things you have accumulated, to whom will they go?" (Luke 12:20). Jesus adds: "Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasures for himself, but is not rich in what matters to God" (Luke 12:21).
I remember the story of one famous author who was asked by a reporter: “How would you feel if you knew that Donald Trump earned in one day the same amount of money that you had earned for 50 years of writing?” The author replied: “Well, I’ve got something he can never buy or have—the knowledge that I’ve got enough."
Knowing that we have enough is one lesson we are slow to learn. St. Augustine once wrote: “It is better to need less than to have much.” He learned this from experience. He was a man of great talents and sufficient wealth, but these did not bring him contentment. In fact, these devastated him. Having too much of everything suffocated him. He was never at rest because he was constantly hounded by the fear of losing what he possessed. Only after his conversion did he realize that real contentment does not consist in having more but in needing less.
How true! When we desperately fill up our lives with everything we can lay our hands on, we resemble a clenched fist, clutching at everything, and always afraid of losing what we consider ours. By focusing on what we truly need, we are able to relativize the absolute value we put on what we possess.
Our bank accounts, real estate property, and businesses may allow us to splurge on luxuries that money can buy, but these hardly last and do not fulfill our deepest longing. As St. Augustine discovered, real contentment lies in establishing a relationship with a God whose generosity and love are boundless.
The first effect of an authentic relationship with God is gratitude. When we are thankful for every blessing we receive, no matter how small, we free ourselves from the slavery of wanting more and having more. Best of all, we make our life a foretaste of heaven—where God is all we have because God is all we need.