28th Week in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Rom 1:16–25
Gospel: Lk 11:37–41

As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to have a meal with him. So he went and sat at table. The Pharisee then wondered why Jesus did not first wash his hands before dinner. But the Lord said to him, “So then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil. Fools! He who made the outside, also made the inside. But according to you, by the mere giving of alms everything is made clean.”

Commentary

When Paul decried the worship of greed for more and more created things, he was taking his lead from Jesus, who had often warned his disciples about the difficulty of the salvation of those, who have an abundance of riches in this world. People have tried to water down Jesus’ statement about it being harder for a rich man to enter heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But Jesus meant what he said. The illustration of the camel going through the eye of a needle was perfect for those he was addressing.

What he was saying was that the rich have to be willing to give up their possessions, and only then will God save them. Those who eagerly seek the wealth of the world will never rightly prize Christ and his grace. But, Christ is equally insistent that rich people can be saved like anyone else, if their attitude to their wealth is not one of greed. The rich can be saved and enter heaven, but only if they put their faith in Christ rather than in their riches.

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