one’s life does not consist of possessions.
What happens to us when life provides a bountiful harvest? Do we, like this rich man, immediately see it as "my harvest"? We delight in imagining to ourselves, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up" and planning all of the pleasures we will acquire with them.
But if thou confessest that those things have come to thee from God, is God then unjust in distributing to us unequally. Why dost thou abound while another begs?
- Saint Basil
The rich man did not know how to live well with riches. He neglected to receive them thankfully and after receiving them he treated them as more valuable than they really were.
But in this he errs, that he thinks those things good which are indifferent.
- Saint John Chrysostom
The rich man succumbed to the temptation to believe that this life would keep going on forever. Blessings lulled him into a complacency that made him lose a sense of the purpose of his life in the larger picture of God's plan. He did not repeat the psalmist's prayer to teach us to number our days (see Psalm 90:12). As a result his last day came unexpectedly, and the things he valued were of no avail.
Virtue alone is the companion of the dead, mercy alone follows us, which gains for the dead an everlasting habitation.- Saint Ambrose
Paul reminded his readers that without Jesus it was the more or less inevitable course of human life to live "in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses" and to be "children of wrath, like the rest". He reminded them that this was their own condition apart from Christ. But he did not dwell there. Thunderously, he turned from the bad news to the good news.
"But God,"
What we could not do God did for us. The traps of the allurements of this world that we could not break God broke for us. The transgressions of greed and covetousness we could not overcome God overcame for us in Christ.
But God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
True riches are those which come from God himself, which only he can provide.
[He] raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Because God has raised us up and made us to already share in his riches we don't need to claw and fight for our piece of a pie that cannot last or satisfy. For us as Christians this means that we need to realize and remember that we are in fact seated with Christ in heaven so that we aren't compelled to play the games of wealth and status. Without this reality as an anchor we feel the need to fend for ourselves. But like the rich man, will anything ever be enough? Will there ever be an amount in which we can finally rest and be satisfied? Riches of that sort, treasure which we obtain for ourselves, cannot provide lasting happiness. Only the things that matter to God can obtain that blessed rest.
What are the riches of God in us? We experience them when his grace refashions us to live for the purpose for which we were created. By God's gift we ourselves become gifts. True riches, then, are found in love.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
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