Gospel: Matthew 19: 23-30
The disciples understood well the plain meaning of Jesus' teaching on being rich and finding one's way into the kingdom of heaven. Even those of us who are not rich want to be so. If given the opportunity we would gladly become so and give ourselves over to their possession of us. The line to purchase lottery tickets is testament enough to this fact.
But these possessions and these desires prevent us from entering the narrow gate of the kingdom, the gate of the poor, the slave, the nomad of the desert. It is the gate of the Beatitudes: poverty of spirit, meekness, purity of heart, empathy with the sorrowful, peacemaking, thirsting for justice, suffering with joy for the sake of others. This is the way God makes possible for us in passing through this narrow gate.
The path to the kingdom is the path of the desert where reliance on riches and possessions is a folly, where reliance on God alone and what God provides in the daily bread of manna and water from the rock are our only sustenance. Few will choose the desert road. Many choose the evil one's temptations there of possessions and power. The way of the desert is the way of the Beatitudes, the path marked out for us to the kingdom of heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment