Sunday Reflections on The Southerner Newspaper
Sunday, August 3, 2025
(Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21 -23, Colossians 3:1-5.9-11, Luke 12:13-21).
(GNB)
It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher. Life is useless, all useless. (Ecclesiastes 1: 2)
My dear brethren in Christ, Peace and Love of Christ be with you. Today, we are being called to reflect on the very essence of our existence here on earth. What really constitute life and gives meaning to it? Is life itself worth giving it all, since it ends in death? I possess everything yet lose it to the cold hands of death, why my toil?
These are some of the questions that we must ask ourselves on a daily basis if we must give meaning to our living here on earth. However, life and existence is a journey.
Today, our reflection will be split into two parts anchored on the Gospel of Luke 12:16-21 on the parable of the ‘Rich Fool’. The first part presents our state of affluence and material possessions here, a state that tends to sum up our desires here on earth where lack is no more and ambitions fulfilled (Luke 12:16-19).
While the second part, presents the futility of our earnest desires and ambitions, the fact that everything is temporary in a temporal world (Luke 12:20-21).
Going through the life of the ‘Rich Fool’ in the first part of the reflection, we are presented a very hardworking man, diligent in his business and eventually had the desired results. He is one, we can in today’s world, refer to as a very successful man, a role model for hard work.
But why the adjective; ‘the Rich Fool’ being used to describe him instead of the ‘the successful man’, ‘the model of diligence’ etcetera. But rather, the reverse was the case. Imagine, the term ‘Rich’ and Foolishness ‘ being used in the same scenario.
The man is rich, successful and had every possible thing that life could offer as a result of hard work or diligence or what have you but he is at the same time being described as a fool because of the fact that he had lost count of the very necessity of life and existence itself.
For him, life starts and ends with material possessions, power and affluence but then, life eventually goes beyond it and there won’t be fulfilment without the other sides of life.
The second part of the reflection will give a clearer picture to what consists life and existence beyond material possessions which time and conventionality has infused in us. According to the parable, at the very night of his merry and feasting to vanity, the giver of all things (God ) visited him and made demand of his life, not his wealth.
Then, the bigger question is, what happens to the possessions he accumulated for himself perhaps at the expense of others? How many barns would he take, or how many goats and sheep will follow him to death?
Even if the whole livestock is slaughtered, does give a corresponding value to life itself?
Perhaps, the death scenario of Alexander the Great would be of great insight. In life, whatever that was given to keep must be returned to the owner when he asks for it without resilience or resentment.
The man in the parable was regarded as a ‘Fool’ not because of the wealth acquired but because of the fact he refused to acknowledge Him that gave him to keep. Which means, it is one thing to acquire or receive, another is to acknowledge the source and the utility attached to it.
In our life here on earth, time is a constant that binds everything and runs through existence leaving its mark on the surface of the earth. So, what we make of it is another thing. In what then, does our life consist or really matter, if our material possessions cannot guarantee us the very fulfillment we sought for? To answer these question within us in all honesty, we must acknowledge the fact that, why we toil everyday and night is to find fulfillment and happiness.
According to economists, man is insatiable just like the teacher (philosopher) in Ecclesiastes points out (Ecclesiastes 1:7-8).
Everything goes round and yet there is no end to it. So also are our desires, ambitions in life; the more you have, the more you desire for, a circle without end.
Taking a leaf from St. Paul (Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:12-14), we begin to see that what really matters in this life is not the material wealth but the very positive impact we have on one another, the right intention placed on the goals we pursue.
Our true happiness and fulfillment come when we begin to spread love, kindness, compassion, gentleness, orderliness etc across our world. Fulfillment comes with the fact that we have created a world of equity and fairness where there is no class distinction.
If what goes around, comes around, have you thought of what becomes of your children, your generation or loved ones you tend to trample others for?
When you have gone to answer the call of death, what becomes of them, the very things you refused to fix comes haunting them. So, even when you think, you have created your own world of happiness, when death comes calling, you are filled with regrets.
But a scenario where seeds of love are sowed, when answering the call of death, you have a sense of fulfillment. Hence, the extent of true fulfillment and happiness are measured at the point of death.
My dear brethren in Christ, let us re-examine ourselves and place things in the right order, that when it is time for us to transit from this temporal existence to that where time is defiled our hearts will be at peace. The seeds we sow today are the shelter for tomorrow.
May the Peace and Love of Christ that surpasses all things, rest and abide in your hearts. Amen.
