GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 16TH AUGUST 2016
TUESDAY OF THE 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
1ST READING: Ezekiel 28:1-10
PSALM: Deuteronomy 32:26-28, 30, 35-36
GOSPEL: Matthew 19:23-30
THEME: LEAN ON GOD, NOT YOUR WEALTH
Nature teaches us that when water is impeded from flowing, it becomes stagnant. With the passage of time, stagnant water becomes unwholesome and stinks. Similarly, wealth is like water; when it is hoarded rather than allowed to flow freely to others, it becomes unwholesome and even a threat to one’s salvation.
Commercial activities thrived and business boomed in the nation of Tyre. Soon, amassing wealth became the order of the day and this gave birth to pride of possession, particularly among the rulers and leading men of the nation. Having so much wealth, they started thinking to themselves, “We are gods” and their hearts grew haughty each day. The prophet Ezekiel tells the prince of Tyre in our First Reading, “Thus says the Lord GOD: Because your heart is proud and you have said, “I am a god; I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,” yet you are but a mortal, and no god, though you compare your mind with the mind of a god…I will bring strangers against you, the most terrible of the nations; they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendour” (Ezek 28:2, 7).
On the issue of wealth, Jesus, in our Gospel text for today, tells his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:23-24). He made this statement after a rich young man walked away from him sad because of his unwillingness to allow the wealth he had to flow to the poor” (cf. Mt. 19:21-22).
We are all wealthy in one way or the other. Some are wealthy intellectually, others, materially. Some too have wealth in other forms. Whenever we make wealth the focus of our lives and consider it as more important than our faith in God and the call to follow Jesus, we risk losing the joy, righteousness and peace of the Kingdom of God.
I came across a quote which says, “almsgiving purifies wealth”. It is in sharing with others what we have received that we preserve what we have and ourselves.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, may the fleeting pleasures of this passing world not sweep me off my feet and draw me away from you, for you are the greatest treasure any person can ever have. Amen
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)