Tuesday,
August 21, 2018
20th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Ezk 28:1-10
Gospel:
Matthew 19:23-30
Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I say to you: it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, believe me: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
On hearing this the disciples were astonished and said, “Who, then, can be saved?” Jesus looked steadily at them and answered, “For humans it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
Then Peter spoke up and said, “You see we have given up everything to follow you: what will be our lot?”
Jesus answered, “You who have followed me, listen to my words: on the Day of Renewal, when the Son of Man sits on his throne in glory, you, too, will sit on twelve thrones to rule the twelve tribes of Israel. As for those who have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or property for my Name’s sake, they will receive a hundredfold and be given eternal life. Many who are now first will be last, and many who are now last will be first.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Because even the minutest dust of material fortune can enslave human beings, Jesus prescribed the spirit of detachment to his disciples. To Jesus, this was the only way they could free themselves from worldly attachment. “Free from the world to be free for the world” could have been the more apt slogan. As evangelizers, this was the kind of freedom that would give them moral ascendancy to echo Jesus’ message that heaven’s gates are too narrow for those who fatten themselves up in worldly indulgence.
In an apparent admission that detachment is not easy, Jesus dangled a reward. Peter was interested. Claiming that he had abandoned all in order to follow Christ, he wanted to be personally assured of
such reward. But the Lord’s reply was generic. Was it because Peter’s brand of detachment was still debatable? What did Peter give up in exchange for the kingdom anyway? A tattered fishing net, an old fishing boat, and a nagging mother in law!
Like Peter, we cannot claim any right to the kingdom even if we give up all we have in exchange for it. Let us not forget that everything we have belongs to the Lord, including those we reluctantly offer to him. If there is anything we can truly call our own that does not belong to the Lord, it is our personal sin. This too the Lord would be happy to accept if offered in the spirit of repentance – the kind that leads to perfect detachment from inordinate worldly pleasures. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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