In the Gospel for this weekend, a man asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” After the man tells Jesus that he follows all the commandments, Jesus responds, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in Heaven; then come, follow me.” The man, saddened by this, leaves Jesus because he had many possessions. Jesus then tells His disciples that it’s hard for the rich to enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
Hearing this, the disciples are shocked. The man isn’t bad, he follows all of the commandments. Most of the people who knew this great guy would have probably said he was deserving of Heaven. This rich man most likely was a good guy, but the issue isn’t his wealth itself, but that he puts more importance on his wealth than on his desire to follow Jesus.
Our number one desire should always be God and our biggest priority should be doing whatever it takes to be with Him forever in Heaven. Being comfortable in this life is meaningless if we are uncomfortable and miserable for eternity. Even friends and family need to come after God. Jesus was once asked what the two greatest commandments are. He replies that the greatest commandment is to love God with your whole heart, soul, and, mind and that the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. How can we love God first if we love money more than Him? How can we love our neighbor if we are living in luxury while our neighbor suffers?
We don’t need to necessarily sell all of our belongings and give it to the poor to get to Heaven, but we should love our neighbors and help them when they are in need. Jesus makes the point that it’s not good to cling to material possessions. He doesn’t tell us this because he doesn’t want us to enjoy life’s blessings, but because He knows material things won’t make us happy in the long run. The rich man in the Gospel had a lot of things that he was clinging to and while he followed most of the commandments, he wasn’t willing to follow the two that matter the most.
My family just went through Hurricane Milton and we know how easy it is for things to disappear in an instant. The famous saying is that you can replace things, but you can’t replace your loved ones. God, our greatest loved one, can never be replaced as well and so we should strive to make it to Heaven so we will never lose Him. Keep your priorities in line and you will find eternal happiness.
