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| From: http://www.thebricktestament.com/ |
We are called to be poor in spirit. We are called to be willing to sell everything to buy the pearl of great price. We are called to be willing to sell everything for the treasure in the field that time and death cannot take away. But we all cling to worldly blessings in one way or another. There are areas in all of our hearts that make us go away sad like the rich man goes away because we both have many possessions.
Our most essential possessions are secondary. We must not worry about even food or clothing more than the kingdom. Our most essential relationships are secondary. We must be willing to give up brothers or sisters or fathers or mothers. Sometimes serving the LORD does divide brother against brother and Father against son. Even then he must be first. How much more, then, must we be willing to give up houses or even lands for him. Yet can we imagine that? The LORD calling us to forego our greatest investments? Calling us to move from the familiar to the uncertain? Yes!
“For men this is impossible,
but for God all things are possible.”
Rather than turning to God we usually try to figure out how to make the impossible possible for men. We find ways to convince ourselves that if we just use our riches the right way we can bring about the kingdom ourselves. In response, we hear, "your has grown haughty from your riches". There is a constant temptation to associate temporary blessings with divine favor. This is how some Catholics become concerned with social teaching as if it was the entirety of Church teaching. So let's have some sympathy with them. Even when we aren't taking that approach for society, we still tend to take a social gospel approach to our lives.
Because you are haughty of heart,
you say, “A god am I!
I occupy a godly throne
in the heart of the sea!”—
We may have possessions. And the things about which we are concerned aren't bad in themselves. They pertain to what we think will bring happiness to ourselves and to others. But Jesus must have the first place. This is how it can be hard for the rich to enter the kingdom. We have to sell our rights to bring ourselves happiness. This is literally impossible on a human level. Yet the rich may still enter the kingdom of heaven because nothing is impossible for God. So how does he do it?
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.
He gives us his promise. He offers more than we can ask for or imagine. He reveals, when necessary, the hollowness of our attempts at happiness. He shows them to be insubstantial so that we do not content ourselves with too little.
No, you are man, not a god,
handed over to those who will slay you.
He helps us to appreciate the blessings we have from him. Our pasts our filled with genuine goods that we often misattribute to our own efforts. We say, "A god am I" instead of thanking God. He teaches us to look back on genuine blessings with thanksgiving.
“How could one man rout a thousand,
or two men put ten thousand to flight,
Unless it was because their Rock sold them
and the LORD delivered them up?”
When we don't hold to false blessings, when we don't misattribute true blessings, we are freed to trust in his promise. We can set our treasure in heaven. We can "set our minds on the things above" (cf. Col. 3:2) and fix "our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" (cf. Heb. 12:2). Now his promise is enough. It is a genuine reality that pulls us toward it with the inexorable gravity of love.
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.
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