RICHES CANNOT BUY SALVATION

XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 10:17-30

This Sunday’s gospel challenges us to make a reflection on wealth and to examine our attitudes towards wealth. The society we live in is intent on creating wealth and the creation of wealth is an essential requirement for the welfare of people. The creation of wealth goes together with work and with the improvement of the living conditions. In order to finish with the scourge of poverty, we must create wealth. However, the creation of wealth is always tainted by the danger of selfishness and exploitation, easily becoming a temptation that separates us from God and turns us against the others. Instead of being a tool at the service of the community, it easily becomes a god, always thirsty for the sweat and the blood of those who produce it. We do not look only for the needed wealth to bring well-being to all, but we put all our minds and hearts on the search for ever bigger profits.

Profit has become the engine that moves the whole society, influencing education, the accepted values, the politically correct and economy. In the market economy, which we are in, profit determines the expansion of the business, its survival or its failure. The rule of profit is a ruthless and compassionless rule, in which workers are valued simply by the amount and the quality of their output. The search for profit leads to an increasing substitution of the worker for the machine, leaving many unemployed. The unbridled search for profit enslaves more and more people, kept at the mercy of profit creation. At any moment, they can be disposed of.

It is not surprising that Jesus used harsh words against wealth when it becomes the god that we serve. One cannot serve God and money (Mt 6:24).

It happened that a rich man, concerned with his own salvation, went to Jesus, looking for the best way to get it. Being a good man, faithful to the commandments, he wanted to do better and to excel. Jesus recognised his desire and invited him to put aside everything that might prevent him from being a true disciple: “Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” However, he found the price too high and “went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth”.

When the heart clings to wealth, the eyes cannot see beyond the wealth and power, the influence and well-being it provides. Wealth puts easily at risk the freedom of spirit and heart, making us slaves who enslave the others, demanding obedience and service. With such an attitude, we cannot enter the kingdom of God.  Hence, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." (Mk 10,25). Nevertheless, God has the power to transform the rich by giving them a heart of poor, that is a heart caring and compassionate, able to share and to be at the service of others, mainly the weak and the suffering.