Then Jesus told this 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 all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”
Yesterday, I gave a talk on ecology to about seventy people – teachers and staff in one of the big universities here in Baguio. Preparing for the talk, two songs of the famous Filipino band, Asin, played in my head, “Masdan Mo Ang Mga Bata” and “Kapaligiran”. I did not quite know how to connect these ideas to come up with a concrete outline of my talk. I just kept listening to the words of the song, until I even heard Nora humming the song, “Masdan….” Then something clicked, I will present a proposal ---being educators of the young to help young people think and critique the mainstream culture of consumption, accumulation and instant gratification using a paradigm of compassion, peace and respect for nature. Using the questions that Papa Francisco prayed about during the WYD, I asked them to look deeply into their vocation as educators of young to focus on the same questions: 1. How to give the youth a legacy worthy of human life? 2. How to awaken in the youth their greatest potential as builders of their own destiny? And 3. How to invite the youth to share responsibility for the future of everyone? And then, I went on to give a lecture on the ecological perspective.
Somehow, reading the scripture passage above, it made sense to me how Jesus addressed the human greed. His parable describes, in my opinion, the present economic system of non-stop development. The key question here is, “when to de-growth” before, a catastrophic death of the Earth’s life-support system “will be demanded from us.” I was reading an article yesterday about “environmentalist must redefine “progress”. Why pass the bucket? Each of us has the responsibility of redefining progress. For us, Christians, Jesus is saying “life will be demanded from those who store up treasures for themselves, but not spiritual riches.” The choice is upon us! Choose life! Feliz dia de la Pachamama!
(reposting from fb notes) series 2013.
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