A continuation of the reading of Saint Matthew. Now, this follows right after yesterday's reading. This will you will recall where our the young man says, Lord what commandments must I keep? And Christ says keep them all. And the young man says, I've done that.
What else must I do? And Christ said, well, you want to be perfect, go and sell, get rid of everything you own and come follow me. This comes right after that. But Jesus continues then speaking to his disciples. I assure you only with difficulty will a rich man enter into the kingdom of God.
I repeat what I've said. It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were completely overwhelmed, and well they might be. And they exclaimed, if that's so, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, for man it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.
Then it was Peter's turn to say to Jesus, here we have put everything aside. We've given up everything to follow you. What can we expect from it? The word for that of course is mercenary. And Jesus said to them, in reply to Peter's question, I give you my solemn word, In the new age, when the son of man takes his seat upon a throne befitting his glory, you who have followed me shall likewise take your places on 12 thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel.
Moreover, everyone who has given up home, brothers or sisters, father or mother, wife or children or property for my sake, will receive many times as much and inherit everlasting life. Many who are first shall come last, and the last shall come first. And this is the good news of the Lord. And it's mighty confusing. The name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit.
Amen. And when I say it's confusing I can point to history. Because there's probably nothing that has caused more practical, practical consequences among Christians, men and women who wanted utterly and most sincerely to follow Jesus. Nothing has caused more diversified and contradictory points of view than this matter of money and sex. Now I'd like to talk about that that first reading where Gideon says, you know the whole world had crumbled around him.
And then get and and and then the message a messenger comes to Gideon says, look, you're going to be the savior. And Gideon says, Lord, where have you been when all this was happening? The problem of evil always with us. But this business about money and riches and giving and living a life of poverty, how are you supposed to accept it? Well, don't have to be much of a reader to know that in the history of the church, the most radical ideas have been lived in the church by good serious honest to God Catholics.
And they weren't excommunicated for the most part. Some of them were. As I said yesterday, you had in the fourth and the fifth century a tremendous movement where thousands and thousands of men and women flocked into the Nile Valley because they thought that that was the way to serve God after you have accepted it. They were born again Christians as we'd say today. Then you had men like Saint Jerome who didn't go to that extreme although he tried it.
Just to mention these just to mention the fourth and the fifth century and down the second Saint Francis of Assisi in the in the thirteenth century, twelfth and thirteenth century. Here you have a man, Francis, not the Franciscans who said, want to owe nothing. I want to give up everything to follow Christ because he thought that's what this text meant. Now down the centuries what the church, I mean the official voice, the living voice of Christ. It has tempered human beings.
It has tempered their impetuosity. It has tempered their extremes. As I say, Jerome was literally booted out of Rome when he came down there and started to preach these very severe doctrines. And so here's another instance where human beings, if you're left with nothing but a book and your best and most generous intentions, you can wind up in disaster. And then you see here it's a very easy step from saying, this is what I think, this is what I want to do, and saying this is what everybody has to do.
And that's when the church steps in and says, Nix, Nix. So that you see now it isn't as simple as I'm presenting it. But by and large this is the way it's been. And as I say the heresies which have arisen because of people's attitude towards property and money and sex and things of this sort have you name it and it's happened. There's nothing new under the sun in this matter really.
But the Catholic church has had a calm medium middle of the road you want to call it attitude. It lets people do almost what they want as long as they don't say this is God's truth. And then it steps in. Now this takes time. Many instances there's no hurry.
And when it steps in there's usually a lot of bitterness, and separation, and heretics, and scissors. But that's the way it is. It only steps in when there's a need and then you have the calm voice of Jesus Christ speaking through his living church. If we need a living guide, history proves it. The name of the father and of the son and holy spirit.
Amen. The lord be