“With God All Things Are Possible”
There are words of Jesus that comfort us immediately, and there are others that disturb us before they console us. Today’s Gospel belongs to the second kind.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The disciples are astonished. Perhaps we should be astonished too. Christ is touching something very deep within the human heart: our desire to possess, to secure ourselves, to become independent, and eventually to believe that what we have can save us.
Yet this Gospel is not simply a condemnation of people who possess material wealth. Its message reaches much further. Jesus is asking every disciple a deeply personal question:
What possesses your heart?
The Danger Is Not Simply Having Wealth
The Catholic faith does not teach that material possessions are evil. The things of creation are good because they come from God. Work, property, financial security and the responsible provision for one’s family all have their proper place in Christian life.
The danger begins when a gift takes the place of the Giver.
A person may possess wealth without being possessed by it. Another person may have very little and still be consumed by envy, greed or the desire for possessions.
Christ therefore looks deeper than the contents of our hands. He looks into the heart.
The rich person faces a particular spiritual temptation because wealth can create an illusion of self-sufficiency. Money can purchase food, shelter, comfort, influence and many forms of security. Slowly, almost without noticing, a person can begin living as though there were no need for God.
But there are things money will never purchase. It cannot buy forgiveness, it cannot purchase peace with God, it cannot conquer death and it certainly cannot purchase eternal life.
Before God, the wealthy and the poor finally stand in exactly the same condition: as creatures completely dependent upon the mercy of their Creator.
“Who Then Can Be Saved?”
The disciples understand the seriousness of Christ’s words.
They ask:
“Who then can be saved?”
Jesus does not respond by giving them a technique for saving themselves. Instead, He looks at them and says:
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Here we arrive at the heart of today’s Gospel.
Salvation is grace.
We cannot purchase it, manufacture it or earn it by our own power. Eternal life is God’s gift, made possible through Jesus Christ.
This does not mean that our choices do not matter. They matter enormously. Christ repeatedly calls us to conversion, obedience, charity, repentance and holiness.
But even our ability to answer God’s call begins with grace. The Christian therefore does not stand before God boasting, “Look at what I have accomplished.” He stands before God saying:
“Lord, without You I can do nothing.”
And strangely enough, this surrender is where true freedom begins.
The Things We Are Afraid to Surrender
Peter then speaks.
“Behold, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?”
There is something wonderfully human in his question.
Peter remembers the boats, the nets, the familiar shores and the life he knew before Jesus called him. The disciples had truly sacrificed something in following Christ.
Jesus does not dismiss their sacrifice. Instead, He promises that nothing surrendered for His sake will ultimately be lost. Those who have left houses, family relationships or lands for His name will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.
This does not mean that Christianity is a transaction in which we surrender something to God so that He will make us materially richer. Christ Himself had nowhere to lay His head, and many saints lived lives of extraordinary poverty.
The hundredfold is something greater, it is life lived in communion with God, the belonging to the family of Christ. It is discovering a joy that possessions cannot provide and finally, it is eternal life.
What Are We Holding Too Tightly?
Today’s Gospel becomes uncomfortable when we stop applying it to somebody else.
It is easy to hear Jesus speak about the rich man and immediately imagine billionaires, politicians, celebrities or powerful businesspeople.
But Christ’s words must first enter our own hearts. Our attachment may indeed be money.
But it might also be our reputation.
- Our career.
- Our property.
- Our plans.
- Our comfort.
- Our social position.
- Our desire to control the future.
Even relationships can become disordered when we place another person where only God belongs.
The question is not merely, What do I own? The more important question is:
What would I refuse to surrender if Christ asked it of me?
That question reveals much about where our treasure truly lies.
Christian Poverty Is Freedom
The Church has always treasured the evangelical counsel of poverty because poverty, properly understood, points toward freedom.
Not everyone is called to renounce all personal possessions in the manner of religious men and women who profess poverty. But every Christian is called to poverty of spirit.
To be poor in spirit means recognising that everything ultimately belongs to God.
- My abilities are gifts.
- My opportunities are gifts.
- My family is a gift.
- My possessions are gifts.
- My very life is a gift.
Once we understand this, generosity begins to make sense. We can share because we know that we are stewards rather than absolute owners. We can give to the poor because we recognise Christ in them.
We can loosen our grip upon possessions because our deepest security no longer comes from what is stored in our accounts or accumulated in our homes. Our security is in God.
“The Last Will Be First”
Jesus concludes with another reversal:
“Many that are first will be last, and the last first.”
The world has its rankings.
- Who is richest?
- Who is most powerful?
- Who has the greatest influence?
- Who receives the most attention?
- Who occupies the highest position?
The Kingdom of God measures greatness differently. There, the humble are exalted, the merciful are blessed, the servant becomes great, the one who gives his life discovers it and those whom the world barely notices may already be very close to the heart of God.
This should challenge us, but it should also give us tremendous hope. Our value before God is not determined by our salary, possessions, social standing, education or influence.
The person who quietly cares for an elderly parent, the mother or father sacrificing for a family, the religious sister serving forgotten people, the worker honestly providing for his household, the person sharing the little he has with someone poorer, these acts may never attract the world’s attention. But heaven sees them.
With God, All Things Are Possible
Perhaps there is something today that you know has too much power over you, an attachment you have tried repeatedly to overcome. Christ is asking you to trust Him in an area where surrender seems impossible. His words are especially for you:
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Christianity is not the story of human beings becoming holy through sheer determination.
It is the story of what God can accomplish in people who allow His grace to transform them.
Peter could not yet imagine where following Jesus would lead him. Neither can we see everything that Christ may ask of us.
But we know the One whom we follow.
And that is enough.
The Lord who asks us to loosen our grip on the passing things of this world is not trying to impoverish us. He is freeing our hands so that we can receive something infinitely greater.
For what does it profit us to possess everything if, in possessing it, we lose the freedom to follow Christ?
Let us therefore ask for the grace to use the things of this world without allowing them to become our masters; to give generously without fear; to recognise Christ in those who have less than we do; and above all, to place our confidence not in what we possess, but in the God to whom we belong.
For everything we possess will one day pass away.
Christ alone remains.
Let us Pray
Lord Jesus Christ,
You call us to follow You with undivided hearts.
Free us from every attachment that keeps us from loving You completely.
Teach us to use the gifts of this world wisely,
to share generously with those in need,
and never to place our security in possessions,
success or human power.
Give us hearts that are poor in spirit,
hands that are generous,
and faith strong enough to surrender everything
that stands between us and You.
When following You seems difficult,
remind us of Your promise
that what is impossible for us
is possible with God.
May we seek first Your Kingdom,
serve You faithfully in this life,
and, by Your grace,
come at last to the riches of eternal life.
You live and reign with God the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.