Lk 12:13-21
13Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” 14He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” 15Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
16Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. 17He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ 18And 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 19and 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!” ’ 20But 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?’21Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”
Reflection:
Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.
A judge once shared with me that he had handled many cases of a man suing his own brother over a few meters of land that the other supposedly encroached on when the latter built his fence. He would tell the brothers, “As a judge, I could easily decide on your case, but after my verdict you will never speak with each other again. So before we proceed, please settle your small dispute and go home as brothers.”
Store up the friendship of your brother, not the small lot you are standing on. If you win him over, you have a guard for your property. If he becomes your enemy, you always have to look over your fence for fear of him. Good fences make good neighbors. But good neighbors have no need for fences. Be careful of what you fence in and what you fence out, says Robert Frost. Fence and store up treasure that matters to God.
Gift your youngest or eldest brother.