Tuesday of 20th week, even numbered year
’Jesus said to his disciples ’In truth I tell you, it is hard for someone rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.“Ez.28,1-10 Dt.32 Mt.19,23-30”Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
We receive this Word just after the proposal Jesus made to the rich young man. Wealth can prevent us from moving towards life, weighing us down, making us lose all our dynamics , preventing us from moving ahead.
It would seem that poverty is what enables us to move forward, to go towards what we desire.
When Jesus announces renouncement, it is not something deadly but rather an adventure leading us to inherit eternal life. It is a New Birth! This goes for all those who follow Jesus. Our life, as a’ following of’ Jesus is a journey towards the Kingdom, towards the Throne of Glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Saint John of the Cross tells us :
’ Do not have any other desire than to enter (the Kingdom of God) in any other way than out of Love of Christ in a spirit of detachment, emptiness and poverty as far as things of this earth are concerned. Thus your heart will let you know your needs which will have diminished. The person poor of heart is never happier than when he is in an indigenous state ; whoever’s heart desires for nothing is at ease at all times.“”When the disciples heard this they were astonished. ’Who can be saved, then?’ they said.
Jesus gazed at them, ’For men this is impossible; for God, everything is possible."
Then Peter answered ’ See how we have left everything to follow you. What’s in it for us, then?’
We are going to consider what comes along in our life in a different way, all that snatches us away from our belongings and our habits. These losses that are imposed upon us are indeed painful ones, seemingly unfair, but they get us
to become our true selves and to be benevolent. Thanks to them we are able to move towards the Kingdom.
Jesus declares that however rich someone might be, he is unable to move towards the Kingdom simply by counting on his wealth, thinking that in this way he can have access to another life , that of God’s Kingdom! The Kingdom of God is of this world! The disciples are there with the markings they have of an earthly kingdom of this world. It is hard for us to make this conversion. On hearing this, the disciples cannot believe it and are astonished. Just as He was for them, Jesus is also Tenderness and Mercy for us too.
"Jesus said to them ’Truly I say to you, when everything is made new again and the Son of man I seated on his throe of Glory, you yourselves will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for my sake will receive a hundred times as much, and also inherit eternal life."
Jesus speaks to all who are at his school of teaching. No one is powerful enough to ensure happiness, each one of us needs to be saved. We need to believe that God Himself can do what we ourselves are unable to. In the Kingdom of Love, we learn how the Gift is fundamental, it is the Kingdom of Love and the Gift is King!
We need to be born into this new perspective of the Gift of God, beginning right now and to place ourselves at the school of Jesus and Mary.
Not only do goods, joys and pleasures of this world weigh us down but they also slow us up as we draw closer to God.
It is our joy knowing how it is God Himself who has us participate in a Kingdom which we ourselves are unable to build up. We acknowledge that God is at work within ourselves despite all our infirmities, giving us Life, giving us Beauty.
We ask for the grace to love God so as to choose him and to choose his Kingdom of Love.