Tuesday 20th week in ordinary time
"Mt 19:23-30"
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Then Peter said in reply, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many that are first will be last, and the last first.
Some people's only ambition is to possess more things. That's all they live for and all they spend their lives doing. This temptation has always existed and it has always destroyed people. Greed is the disordered love of riches, and often takes the form of consumerism. Advertising companies spend billions feeding our appetites for things to buy, even if we don't need them. It's as if 'he who dies with the most toys wins.'
Our life is made rich not by the amount of things we have, but by what we have in our heart. Hearts were created to love persons, not things. If you put things into it, it gets corrupted. The bait that the enemy uses to catch men is, many times, greed. African hunters have a clever way of trapping monkeys. The trap has a hole just big enough for a monkey's hand to pass through. Inside they leave an orange. The monkey slips its hand through the small hole, grasps the orange, and tries to pull it through the hole. Of course, the orange won't come out; it's too big for the hole. But the monkey never thinks about dropping the orange. As long as it keeps its fist wrapped around the orange, the monkey is trapped.
The same happens to those rich people who have their hearts attached to things: toys, smartphones, gadgets, clothes... That heart, wrapped up in many things, will never pass through the narrow gate of Heaven. They may remind us of Gollum, that unhappy creature in 'The Lord of the Rings' who lives obsessed with his "precious." Do you remember? As a miserable slave of the ring, he ends up dragged down into the fire by that 'treasure'.
Holy Mary, my Mother, help me to live always detached from things; to have my heart attached only to God, my Lord.
