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<b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:currentcolor none medium;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">Friends,
<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>today in our Gospel Jesus tells of a rich man who has been so
successful that he doesn’t have space enough to store his harvest. So he
tears down his barns and builds bigger ones. But that very night, he
dies—and all of it comes to naught. "Thus it will be for all who store
up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what
matters to God."</b></span></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><br></span><br><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">No
matter how good, how beautiful a state of affairs is here below, it is
destined to pass into nonbeing. That sunset that I enjoyed last
night—that radiantly beautiful display—is now forever gone. It lasted
only a while. That beautiful person—attractive, young, full of life,
creative, joyful—will eventually age, get sick, break down, and die. </span></span></b><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">An
image that always comes to mind when I think of these things is the
gorgeous firework that bursts open like a giant flower and then, in the
twinkling of an eye, is gone forever. <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>Everything is haunted by <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">nonbeing</span>.
Everything,
finally, is<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> a bubble</span>.</b></span></span><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>But
<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> </span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>this</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>is not meant <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">to</span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> <b>depress </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>us</b></span>; <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>it </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>is meant to redirect our attention
precisely to the things that are "above," to the eternity of God.</b></span></span></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>
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