20 AUGUST (Mt 19,23-30)

Today, Jesus proclaims that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is a statement that deserves to be properly understood. A literal interpretation is highly deleterious. Who can help us to understand the Word of Jesus is the Psalm.

My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will you assail a man, That you may murder him, all of you, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? They have counseled only to thrust him down from his high position; They delight in falsehood; They bless with their mouth, But inwardly they curse. Selah. My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah. Men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie; In the balances they go up; They are together lighter than breath. Do not trust in oppression And do not vainly hope in robbery; If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them. Once God has spoken; Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God; And loving kindness is Yours, O Lord, For You recompense a man according to his work (Psalm 62 (61) 1-13).
The wealth condemned by Jesus is not the material one. This does not send anyone to hell. Rather, it could be an instrument of great salvation. The wealth that sends us to perdition in life and after death is the one that makes us replace God with it. When the goods of this world take the place of God, when we think that our life is from our wealth, it is then that we became idolatrous and wicked and there is no salvation for the idolatrous and ungodly. God has been excluded from their heart. There is no more place in it for truth, justice, mercy, pity, compassion and almsgiving: the true love towards man.

God is the source, the spring, the beginning and the end of our lives. When wealth becomes the source, spring, beginning and end of life, then one is already in the death of the soul, intelligence, spirit, feelings and heart. This death while one is in the body, will be transformed into eternal death. God was excluded in life, he will also be excluded in death. Wealth was our God on earth, it will also be afterwards. But wealth cannot give eternal life. It is a thing. It is not life. It is not the life.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

The possibility that a rich man is saved is one: moving the truth of his mind, his heart and his intelligence. From trusting in riches to trusting, to having faith only in God, in his goodness, mercy, charity, love, providence and life. God is our life on earth and in the heavens, in time and in eternity. When you enter this conversion, then the goods of the earth are instantly transformed into instruments to love more; they are no longer essential to our lives, because life is not from them. Idolatry is the deadly poison for every man. Wealth is real idolatry when it takes the place of God in our lives. However, this form of idolatry is stupid, foolish, wicked and evil. Even poverty could be the great idolatry of man. It is true idolatry when one wants to cancel it in impiety and the transgression of the commandments. When one wants to remove God from poverty.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us true worshipers of God.