Homily for August 18th, 2020: Matthew 19:23-30.
Jesus’
disciples are “completely overwhelmed,” today’s gospel tells us, to hear the
Master say that riches are a bar to entrance into God’s kingdom. Their religion
taught them that material blessings were a sign of God’s favor. No wonder that
the disciples ask: “Then who can be saved?” The figure used by Jesus of a camel
passing through the eye of a needle is, the Scripture scholars tell us, a
typical oriental exaggeration – something impossible even to conceive, let
alone happen.
Jesus did not tell the young man with
many possessions to sell everything because riches are evil. Rightly used,
wealth is good. Riches become a danger for us, however, when we hang on to them
too tightly -- and whenever they give us
a false sense of security.
Jesus summons us to trust in God and
in him alone. For unaided human powers the demands Jesus makes on us are impossible. They are impossible,
that is, for everyone except God. “For God all things are possible,”
Jesus tells us.
When life seems too much for you;
when you are weighed down by anxiety, illness, injustice, the claims of others,
or the nagging sense of your own inadequacy; when God’s demands on you seem too
great -- whenever, in short, you come up against the impossible; then
you are up against God. He is the God of the impossible. In every impossible
situation, in every trial that is too hard for you to bear, his divine Son and
your best friend is saying to you, with tender love:
“For you it
is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
No comments:
Post a Comment