Money is one of those things that often brings out the worst in people. It can also bring out the best through charitable donations and helping the poor, but quite often money corrupts. It is the rich that Jesus is speaking directly to in this Gospel. To say it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to inherit eternal life is pretty strong language.
So what does Jesus mean by today’s passage? Is he really saying that if you make a good salary you will not go to heaven? I think some context here is important. Jesus reprimands the Sadducees and Pharisees time and time again. These were the religious leaders of the time who had a lot of money and status. They followed the letter of the law but were often hoarding the gifts that were given at the temple and were setting up a class system of the religious elite versus the common folk.
We can also recall the story where Jesus fashions whips and flips tables because the temple has become a marketplace as opposed to a house of worship. This topic is very clearly important to Jesus. But we have to read the Scriptures within the context of the time they were delivered. I do not read this verse as saying you cannot make a comfortable living and provide for your family. But what I do hear it saying is twofold. First, we should not put money above God. Second, we should realize that all that we have been given is a gift and we should not hoard our resources, but should be generous with the gifts God has given.
We all have a desire to make money. Nobody likes living paycheck to paycheck. But there is a big difference between allowing our money to control us and being in control of the things we have been given. Perhaps Jesus is asking us to see this difference and live by it. I once heard some great advice from a priest friend who said when we give we should feel it a little. If we have been blessed with wealth we should give enough where we feel it. If we have been blessed with less we should still give what we can back to the less fortunate.
None of us will be millionaires in heaven. Even if we reach this status here on earth, we don’t take any of that money with us. Maybe the question for today is, how can we use our gifts like the woman who gave her last two coins back to the Lord as opposed to the religious leaders who gave barely anything of the massive wealth they had? Generosity is much more important than the physical amount, as long as we remember it is all a gift and gifts are meant to be shared.
From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless!
Daily Reading
Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Reading 1 1 Cor 1:26-31 Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.Not many of you were wise by human standards,not many were powerful,not many were of noble birth.Rather, God chose…
Saint of the Day
Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Saint Raymond Nonnatus, delivered by cesarean after his mother’s death, is the patron saint of expectant mothers and midwives.
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