18th Sunday of ordinary time. Today’s readings: Qoheleth 1,2; 2,21-23; Colossians 3,1-5.9-11; Luke 12,13-21 It must be by sheer coincidence that it happens to be my turn to offer this reflection on the Sunday liturgy. It so happens that last week my family purchased a grave that someday will be used for yours truly. It was an opportunity for me to think long and hard about the meaning of life. Then I read today’s words “vanity of vanities; all is vanity… generations come and generations go… they must leave all they own to another” (Qoh 1,2.4; 2,21), words that rang true more than usual. Let us pause for a while and analyse the Master’s parables. In today’s teaching, he points to the foolishness of one who, seemingly tactfully, built bigger barns to store his large harvest. He had found a way of investing his belongings to secure a happy future for himself. But the Lord had also recounted a parable about individuals who were rewarded precisely for multiplying the talents with which they had been entrusted! The ones who had generated most talents were deemed good and faithful servants. Clearly, the Lord was critical, not of hard-working, enterprising people, but rather of those...