Monday of the Twenty-NinthWeek in Ordinary Time
The cycle of the life
Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” Lk 12,16-21
This rich man, whose country had given a good harvest, was to be a person of middle age, because it is the period of the life when you think where to place the goods which you have accumulated. Before and after this moment the problems are others. This summer, after dinner, we were in the garden of Castiglioncello, spending while talking the last hours of the day, before going to bed. Among grandparents, sons and grandchildren we were about fifteen people. Paul, the latest child of Anna Rita, was committed to swallow the last feeding-bottle of milk of the day; Clara and Carlotta were playing and bickering between them, building something using the stones of the garden and chattering about what they would have done when being adults; and Sara, who is finishing the elementary school, was teased because it was discovered that she had her first crush for a classmate. Gabriel, always engaged in the swimming competitions, informed us about his chronometric times and about those which he thought to catch up shortly. Eugenio and Gianmario were talking about their future work looking forward within few years, when they will reach the age of the man of the today parable, and will begin to think about how to invest their earned money. In the midst of all these dreams and programs we were there as grandparents who, while we try to plan the years we have still ahead, we are already beginning to think to the meeting with the Lord. Our age is not the one in which new stores are built, to accommodate a good harvest, on the contrary it is the one when it is desired to transmit what we have learned of more valuable content from the life. It is the wonderful cycle of the human existence which, starting from the dreams of when we are children and, after programs and achievements, we conclude asking where we are going.