Many, many years ago when I was in my early teens I had the good fortune to travel to our ancestral home in Germany with my family. As part of that trip there was an outing to a beautiful Bavarian lake. I remember enjoying the sight of snow-covered mountains that bathed their feet directly in the sparkling water. For just a moment I felt an irrational sadness that I did not "own" the lake. I dismissed it quickly as the silly thought it was. The Gospel passage above brought back the memory as a flashback. I think now how instinctive is our desire to "own" and to "control" the good and beautiful things of this world. Even very small children must be taught to share their toys. The rich man in Jesus' parable show us how useless it really is to hoard and to grasp. How does God intend us to use the goods of this world. There is so much beauty and goodness everywhere and most of it is free. White clouds against a blue sky cannot be surpassed by any painter or photographer. All we need do is look up and praise the Creator who designed it for our pleasure. The poorest person in the world "owns" those clouds.
We hear often that "we cannot take it with us". Another piece of wisdom of the saints is that we keep only what we give away. When our possessions become means of helping others they become an eternal "possession" of ours. I think praise and gratitude is another way of making things eternal. Did you ever stop to enjoy the blue chicory blossoms at the roadside? Sometimes they are intermingled with the yellow of wild dandelion. What a sight! There is also the delicate blossom of the Queen Anne's Lace. Because it is just a weed, we often overlook it. So it is with many of God's gifts It is because we do not stop to appreciate and enjoy and therefore do not "own" the treasure as God intended. It is not that we should not accumulate riches, it is that we try to grasp and hold the WRONG riches. There is an old song that tells us "the best things in life are free"... we only have to look for them and thank the loving God who sent them.
