Rich Toward God: The Only Treasure That Lasts

Eph 2:1-10, Psalm: 99, Lk 12:13-21

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

What if your greatest achievement turned out to be your greatest loss? What if the barns you spent a lifetime building were the very walls that kept you from God? Today, Saint Paul and Jesus confront us with a radical truth: we are not saved by what we accumulate, but by what we receive. We are not defined by what we own, but by whose we are.

In his Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul paints a stark picture of our condition apart from God: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins.” Dead. Not sick, not struggling, not merely wounded—dead. We were utterly incapable of saving ourselves. But then comes the most beautiful word in all Scripture: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ.” Paul is not describing a reward for good behavior. He is describing a resurrection. “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.”

Then Jesus tells a parable that exposes the folly of trusting in ourselves. A rich man’s harvest is so abundant that he decides to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. He says to himself, “Rest, eat, drink, be merry!” He believes he has secured his future. But God says, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” The man’s problem was not his wealth; it was his misplaced trust. He was “not rich in what matters to God.”

The connection is this: Grace is the only treasure that cannot be taken from us. The rich fool stored up grain, but his soul was bankrupt. Paul reminds us that we are “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance.” We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. The handiwork of God is not a self-made man; it is a grace-made saint.

Pope Francis has said, “The Lord does not want us to be slaves to possessions. He wants us to be free to love and to serve.” Saint John Paul II, in his encyclical Centesimus Annus, wrote, “The goods of the earth are meant for all, and the ownership of property is not an absolute right.”

What does this mean for us? We live in a world that tells us our worth is measured by our net worth. We are tempted to build bigger barns—more savings, more status, more security. But Jesus says, “You fool!” Not because we should not work or save or plan. But because we must not trust in our barns. We must trust in the One who gives us the gift of salvation.

Today, let us examine our hearts. Where do we place our trust? Are we rich toward God, or rich toward ourselves? Let us ask the Lord to give us the grace to recognize that everything we have is a gift. Let us invest in the one treasure that will never be taken from us: the grace of God, the love of Christ, and the promise of eternal life.

For by grace we have been saved, through faith. And that is the only wealth that lasts forever. Amen.

May God bless you all!