18 August 2020
Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus makes a startling claim after the rich young man has left: “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God” (Mt. 19:24). The Kingdom of God is no place for the self-reliant, and the more we have, the more we are likely to believe we are self-reliant. If we are truly to dwell in God’s kingdom, there is no room for a competing king. Any sense that we are in control or that our will must prevail has to go.
How do we do this? St. Francis, a model of poverty for the whole Church, did so not only by simple living, but by throwing himself into situation after situation that he could not succeed at on his own. The key to Francis’ actions was to create an instability in his life that demanded he trust in God. If we follow God even to the point where our own resources alone will surly fail, we will find ourselves escaping the illusion of self-reliance, no matter the resources we may think we have. Throw yourselves fully into whatever God places before you, learn to rely on God alone, and be made a citizen of God’s Kingdom.