“más rico de toda” (Which Is Out Of My Pay-Grade)" (Lk.16:19-31; James 1:10f; 2:5f; 5:1f) [Spanish Jerusalem Bible Series - Job sub-series - #1:1-3]

… más rico de toda… (That’s “Richer than all”),
Way out of my paygrade – so greater the fall
This man would encounter when all gets destroyed;
My mom said, “Don’t go there”, when I was a boy.

A Jewish acquaintance just choked on her food
On viewing our kinfolk, and who got called, “Good”
“Our family’s quite different, reverse it would seem,
We’ve praises for bankers, on them we are keen.

“But Rabbis? Forget it! Though it is all right;
Our bankers, financers we hold up to light”;
But in this wee passage we see wonder-man
Who’d made it in their eyes – “más rico is grand”.

How does one make money at this scope and scale?
That issue’s not dealt with in picture ’fore gale;
But loss of great riches is for us ahead
In Western economies, ’fore we’re all dead.

So maybe we’ll visit this book down the road
When all has collapsed, and we’ve come under load;
Two-thirds of the world lives on crumbs left by Dives;
We’ve little compassion when folks can’t survive.

It seems God provided mankind with a heap
Of goodies sufficient to hunger defeat;
But we had to divvy them up best we could –
A difficult task as our outlook’s not good.

This guy must be kingpin of area farms;
With that many oxen (that’s tractors), alarms
Go off in my head – if he lost that much stuff,
That’s massive starvation, so life would be tough.

And three thousand camels – that’s corner on trade;
With them lost to neighboring countries it’s made
A heckuva dint in economy there –
All eggs in one basket – it’s not soon repaired.

I like that, the author says servants – “a lot” –
I guess! Mucking stalls for the cattle he’s got
Without aid of tractors and feedlots set up,
This guy’s got his hands full (with kids getting schlepped).

So why does he get up at dawn, go to church?
To sacrifice lambs lest he’s left in the lurch
By God, if offended by his wayward kin,
Those rascally rabbits engaging in sin.

But dawn? There’s five services throughout the day –
So maybe before he goes off to earn pay;
His kids are no help in his enterprise bold
So he needs to work hard to have and to hold.

At least he’s aware of the source of his goods,
And loss of good favor with God’s understood
To be catastrophic – great scene author paints
At the start of his story – rich guy who’s a saint.

Out here on the Prairie it’s more smoke and mirrors –
The rich are indebted – with anguish and tears;
The surface appearance? Appealing of course,
But under the surface there’s little resource.

Calamity happens, when bankers foreclose
There’s auctions of tractors (that’s oxen to those
Who farmed in past eras, like a Job in this yarn),
Regardless, it’s tough when one loses the farm.

The kids are complacent, but Job is concerned;
He’s got a routine lest good fortune get burned;
So it’s not much different for us in our day –
Our customs maintain life so we can make hay.

Thanks Lord for this.

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