Today, if we do not cover our ears and close our eyes, the Gospel will deeply move us with its clarity: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions” (Luke 12:15). What is it that ensures man's life?

We know very well what ensures the life of Jesus, because He himself has told us: “For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself” (Jn 5:26). We know that Jesus' life not only comes from the Father, but consists in doing his will, since this is his nourishment, and the Father's will is equivalent to accomplishing his great work of salvation among men, giving his life for his friends, a sign of the most exalted love. Jesus' life, then, is a life received totally from the Father and given totally to the Father himself and, out of love for the Father, to men. Can human life, then, be sufficient in itself? Can it be denied that our life is a gift, that we have received it and that, for that reason alone, we should give thanks? “Nobody can claim to be the master of his own life” (Saint Jerome).

Following this logic, we only need to ask ourselves: What meaning can our life have if it is closed in on itself, if it finds its pleasure in saying: “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” (Luke 12:19)? If Jesus' life is a gift always received and given in love, our life—which we cannot deny having received—must become, following Jesus's, a total gift to God and to our brothers and sisters, because “whoever loves his life loses it” (Jn 12:25).