do

Don’t hoard possessions but hoard good deeds.
Jesus often told his followers not to be afraid. In today’s reading, he tells them not to be hoarders either. Trust in God and do not be afraid. Instead of storing things up on earth and hoarding for a better day, “sell your possessions, and give alms.” If you have to hoard, hoard your good deeds and collect as many of them in ‘purse that doesn’t wear out’ as you can so that you can use them in the final judgement when we head toward what Paul calls the “better country….the heavenly one”.
Anthropologists tell us that the people of Jesus’ time were people who lived in the present moment. Life was hard for them and they were consumed by finding their “daily bread”. They did not have the luxury of looking to the future, deciding what they wanted to be, saving up for University or a new home or whatever. Jesus, in his usual counter-cultural way, as interpreted by the evangelist Luke, was trying to get people to forget the present for a few moments and look to the future. For the early Christians who expected Jesus’ return, it was important for them to be prepared, but as the years passed and Jesus had not returned, they began to see this as a future, not a present prospect. Thus, by the time the Gospels were written, it was being treated as a future event. We are to act in a way that prepares us for the Kingdom. How ready would any of us be if we were to be called to give an account of our Christian life? If Jesus should return tomorrow, will we have done all we could to create the Kingdom in our lives and in the lives of those around us?