“This night, thy soul shall be required of thee.”

(Luke 12:16-21) (December 14, 2003)

“This night, thy soul shall be required of thee.”

Is there anyone who can hear these words, and not feel at least a little bit nervous? Yes, we trust in the mercy of God; but are we ready, right now, to go into His presence? What if you were to die tonight, and found yourself standing in the presence of God? What would you say? What would you do?

This parable about the rich man is meant to instruct us, so that we can be prepared for that moment when we depart this life and stand before God to be judged. Now, as we look at the parable, we see a man who is rich and successful. He’s just completed a very profitable harvest (and there’s the impression that this is not the first time this has happened to him), so much so that he requires more space to store the harvest than is available to him. He is now planning what to do to provide for the future, and how he will enjoy the benefits of this wealth. From the point of view of our culture, this man is someone we’d like to know, if we couldn’t actually be him. He’s looking forward to a long and comfortable life.

But there’s a problem. “This night, thy soul shall be required of thee.” According to the fathers, God is saying that the angels will come for this man and demand (that’s the word in the original Greek) that he surrender to them his soul. But he does not want to give his soul, for he loves this life, and claims the good things of this life as his own.

The angels do not require the soul of the righteous man, because he has already committed his soul to God, and has done so freely, with joy and gladness. For the righteous man, the body is a light burden, easily laid aside. But the sinner has made his soul fleshly, something in substance like the body, and like the earth, making it difficult to separate from the body. This is why it must be demanded of him, as debt collectors treat those who refuse to pay what they owe. But the souls of the righteous do not need to be collected; their souls are already in the hands of God.

The fathers also tell us that we do well to remember that we will, one day, die; and that each of us should always give thought to the condition of our soul. Wise? Or foolish?

He who lays up treasure for himself is foolish. He is never happy; never satisfied; he is darkened by the love of wealth, and the light of divine knowledge does not penetrate. Ultimately, death overtakes him, his plans unfinished, his soul unprepared. The rich man does not consider that he had received his wealth from God; and so he contemplates what to do with his riches only from a worldly, and selfish, point of view.

He who lays up treasure for the poor and for God is rich towards God, and does not deprive God of what is His. He trusts in God to provide for his needs, even if he were to give away all that he has. If the rich man had considered that the wealth he had received had come from God, he might have realized that he was meant to serve as a steward for God. Then, rather than planning to build barns to hold his goods, he might have thought of the poor. He might have made their stomachs his storehouses, and so built up riches for God, for he who feeds the poor feeds God.

God has entrusted riches to us. We need to examine ourselves: what is our attitude towards the good things we have received in life? Do we give thanks for these to God? Or do we consider that we are entitled to what we have because of who we are, and what we’ve done? Do we use what we have - or, at least, a portion of it - for those in need? Or do we only take our own wants and needs into consideration? If we use it only for ourselves (and don’t be fooled: if you’re not giving up something in order to give for the needs of others, you don’t get it yet), we are like the rich man - we are foolish. If, however, we are doing what we can to use wisely the riches God has entrusted to us, and caring for the needs of others with the understanding that we are stewards of God’s bounty, we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

Brothers and sisters, we do not know the hour of our departing this life; only God knows the day and the hour. Let us not delay, but dedicate ourselves, and all our life to the love and service of God; and put this into action by loving and serving each other, and those in the world around us. Let us embrace the Orthodox life of prayer, and fasting, of spiritual struggle and the giving of alms, so that we may entrust our selves and our souls to God, and be set free of all that would hold us in this world.