Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
In order to properly contextualize the Gospel passage today, it is necessary to recall that the principal objective of the Christian life is to live in total relationship with God such that we allow nothing to separate us from His love. The love of God is always our highest good and infinitely supersedes any and all other possible things that we could ever enjoy. As such, what Jesus is really trying to get at is that everything in our lives should be oriented first and foremost towards right relationship with God.
When we are comfortable, when we have our material comforts provided for, when we have money or other resources in abundance, it can be so easy to forget how completely dependent we are on God for every moment of our very existence. In fact, it can be easy to begin to believe that we are the sole masters of our fates. It is thus often those moments of dire need and serious trouble that remind us most clearly of how powerless we actually are. Difficulties in life force us to recognize that we cannot do it on our own and that we are totally dependent on God to sustain us in every moment of every day. It is in this way that apparent earthly misfortunes can prove to be a tremendous blessings in disguise in that they can re-orient us to the truth that God alone sustains us and God alone can satisfies the deepest and most desperate desires of our hearts.