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Matthew 19: 23-30
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Our Real Worth
This is one of the easiest passages of the Gospel to rationalize away, but Jesus is clear and direct. Our money and possessions prevent us from entering the kingdom of God.
Why? Because we can value money and possessions more than people, more than creation, more than ourselves. We can confuse our monetary worth with our real worth. Our real worth is this, that we are creatures loved into existence by God and we have untapped potential to love.
Ask anyone who has given up possessions to follow God and in their most honest moments they will admit that they have received the hundredfold graces promised to sustain them.
—David J. M. Herr, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic teaching philosophy at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
Prayer
Jesus,
You entered this world in poverty,
Lived in poverty,
And died in poverty.
Help me to let go of my fleeting possessions
So that I might hold on to real treasure.
Amen
—David J. M. Herr, SJ