Driving down the road, a bumper sticker is often seen: The one who dies with the most toys wins. This is a contemporary rendition of the mantra of Jesus rich fool: Eat, drink and be merry.Juggling credit cards and all kinds of financing schemes, many people live life like the rich fool in today's Gospel. Is the drive for material pleasure, or security, impoverishing my soul? 

What will truly make us happy? Glossy magazine ads are, for some, a source of inspiration on this point. Basically, they are about bigger barns: a hotter car, redder lipstick, spectacular vacations. The rich fool believes that by increasing his capacity for material pleasure, he will be happier. But it's an illusion. Like the running wheel for a gerbil, it is lots of movement without getting anywhere. We invest energy and effort acquiring things, but the bigger barn brings us little joy. That's because our hearts -- not our barns -- are what really need to be enlarged. Our heart longs for love. That Augustinian restlessness will never leave us in peace until we have encountered the Lord who loves us and discovered him in the relationships ordained by his providence.

At the end of this parable, Jesus in essence says, You can't take it with you. There's a place in Rome in which this is graphically depicted. The Capuchin church of St Mary of the Immaculate Conception, on Via Veneto, is affectionately known as the Bone Church. Inside there is an amazingly designed and arranged display made completely out of the bones of four thousand Capuchin friars! While it may strike at modern sensitivities as somewhat morbid, like today's Gospel it teaches an important lesson. All those bones look alike. Unless you are a forensic expert, you cannot tell who was fat or thin, smart or dull, handsome or homely. Death is the great leveler. Earthly advantages dissolve. Material goods stay in this world. We go to the Lord to render an account of our lives at death. As the little sign on the wall of the Capuchin ossarium says, One day, we were like you. One day, you will be like us.

Conversation with Christ: 

Resolution: