A reading of the holy gospel according to Matthew. Jesus said 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. Well, when the disciples heard this, they were completely overwhelmed and explained, well, if this is so, who can be saved?
And then Jesus looked at them and said, for man, it is impossible. But for God, all things are possible. And then it was Peter's turn to say to Jesus, you'd have guessed it, here, we've put everything aside. We've given up everything to follow you. What can we expect to get out of it?
That's putting it on the line. And then Jesus said to them, notice, Peter is the spokesman, and our lord then speaks to them. And he said, 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 and sisters, father and mother, even wife and 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 gospel of the lord. The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. And I might add this is a honey.
What in the world does it all mean? The more you think about it, the more obscure, misleading, confusing it becomes. What's a rich man? Who's a rich man? Well, when Christ says the difficulties about a rich man and so forth being saved, And when the disciples said, well then, who can be saved?
It seems to be implying that the whole booming world's a bunch of rich men. So what is a rich man? There's no definition in the New Testament as far as I know. Then again, coming back to that theme that I developed so eloquently Sunday, some didn't think it was so eloquent, about Christ that you have a choice between Christ as the son of god or being a lunatic or much worse, as Lewis says, the worst devil of hell. Here's another instance.
Read this in cold blood and see what you get out of it. Here the here this bunch of ignorant, which doesn't that's that's they they were illiterate men. They were fishermen from up in the Galilee, nondescript fellows. But if they left everything they had, and nobody can do more than that, to follow Jesus. So Peter says, here, we've given up everything to follow you.
What are we going to get out of it? Now you just read what Christ answers and see what you get. He said, what are you going to get? He said, you're going to be sitting on your own thrones along with me when I come into my kingdom. What would you think he meant?
I don't know what you would think. I don't know what I would think. But the point is, let's be honest. It wasn't easy to know what Christ was talking about under the all circumstances considered, and that's the only way you can understand anything, really, if you're honest. So what in the world do we mean by this rich man?
I think here, I know this is playing on thin ice, but and I certainly don't wanna make any connection, really. But Ezekiel has something to say here, I think, in answer to that question, what's a rich man? What what's the point of this reading you heard this morning from Ezekiel? The essence of it is not pride. For example, if you're a good bridge player and if if you're a good bridge player and if you are a good bridge player, you will know that you're a good bridge player if you follow me.
There won't be any guesswork about it. If you're a good soccer player and if you are a good soccer player, you'll know whether you're a good soccer player or not. And there's no pride in saying, yes. I'm good. There's no pride in a man telling you that he shoots a 78.
That's not pride. It's being honest. The sin of pride is the sin of dishonesty, and worse than that, of putting up idols. As and that's what comes out in Ezekiel, that the rich man referred to here, he considers himself a god. He can do everything, and money can do a lot of things.
But as mister Rockefeller found out, it couldn't stave off death indefinitely. And so, what do we mean by a rich man? All I can say is I don't know what the gospel means by a rich man. I only know this, that a person can have nothing but the coat on his back and have all the sins of a rich man. That I know for sure.
And I know a I know that a man or a woman can have a healthy bank account and not have any of the sins of a rich man. I know that for sure. Then what are we talking about here? We are talking about honesty, honest to god honesty. And I can't I you you'll get tired of my talking about Thomas More.
I don't get tired of being associated with it. I spent some time yesterday reading his wonderful dialogue, dialogue of comfort against discomfort, which he wrote while he was in the tower. And where, as I said, he was a wealthy man. Not only was he wealthy, I mean, he wasn't a wealthy man in a sense that he had a big bank account and counted his shekels. He was wealthy in the things that he had acquired.
He had acquired a nice estate which he had built up in Chelsea. He had a lovely house where he entertained properly with pomp and circumstance when it was when it was proper. And after all, was lord, high chancellor of England. And under that wonderful magnificent picture that you that Holbein made of him, he was wearing a hair shirt. But nevertheless, when Erasmus came to visit him, he entertained Erasmus with du pomp and circumstance.
So he had a gallery, he had a zoo, he had a museum, he had a lovely estate. And his second wife was and his family, of course, they were all attached to it. And being charged with treason, the king could not only take his life, but he everything he owned was subject to expropriation, everything. And so his family was in deathly fear that they would lose everything. And what you have to and this is not to criticize him because as far as they cons were concerned, he was playing the part of a fool.
He was a clown. Nobody could talk any sense into his hard head. As I said, he had the whole hierarchy of England against against him with one exception. He was a minority that was almost infinitesimal, and all he was doing was willing to sacrifice everything. And here's the joker.
See, not every everything of his own, but everything that belonged to his family. That's where his family got into the picture. And so here he was perfectly willing to throw all of this away because of a scrupulous conscience, because he could not say he could not take the oath that in Henry the eighth was head of the church of Jesus Christ in England. And it was that simple. Now who's the rich man?
Was he a rich man? He is the one who owned all this stuff. His family didn't own it yet. They'd only own it when he passed it on to them. Who was the rich was he a rich man?
He certainly was. Can a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven? They certainly can. You don't have to be a saint Francis of Assisi to be saved. You know?
After all, of our lord's best friends was from the sanator who gave him his own tomb, and he was a rich man. So let's it's not easy. What is Christ talking about? He is talking about idols. He is talking about our values.
What is first in our life? When Thomas More is in that he was there for over a year, remember, and every single day, every single hour, he faced the possibility of that thump on the door taking him to be hanged and quartered for over a year, my dear. He is the one there. Was he attached to all of these things that that he had accumulated? Of course, he was.
Was he in fear of losing them? Of course, he was. He says he is and was. I'm not guessing. He says this.
And he also says that the only answer to that fear is god's grace. It's perfectly normal to be scared and to be afraid. So who's the rich man? So let us try as I say, I think Ezekiel has something to tell us here today. And it's a question of where our values are.
Here we had prayed time and again, and this is a mass from Sunday, that we and notice we're praying to God to see God in all things. Now you see, it's one thing to love money as money. It's another thing to love a beautiful home because money is a worthless thing in itself unless it's gold, and its only worth is the worth that it has by other people wanting it. See, there's a tremendous difference here of orientation. And we pray here to see god in all things and to love god in all things and to be joyful in the expectation of being joyful with him forever.
That's what we're praying in the intro in the opening prayer of the mass, the oration. And so let us understand this. It's a matter of values. Remember, men like Aquinas spoke eloquently and just as sincerely about the virtues of magnificence, of benevolence, of magnanimity as they did about justice and chastity and purity, exactly with the same earnestness. These are virtues, and this was a saint who was proclaiming it.
So he once again, we're faced with this situation that to be a Christian with the truth of Christ is not easy. You cannot pick and reject. You have to take it all. And taking it all gets us into trouble because trying to take it all and holding it all together is a problem. Because we are pulled in in diverse directions.
We are distraught. And the only thing that can bring it all back together again is Jesus Christ. I'm perfectly convinced of that. No philosopher has ever done it. Christ did it because he said simply, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Believe him, he meant that. In the name of the father and the son and holy spirit. Amen.