One night, the local news announced the lottery jackpot had reached nearly a billion dollars. Sitting with my housemates, we marveled at this astronomical amount. “Think of all the good we could do with that money,” one sister remarked, but as we debated buying a ticket, our eldest member piped up, “Think of the stress!”
Her point was well taken. Having worked both with those who are materially poor and those who are economically affluent, I’ve seen firsthand the pinch of the challenging teaching Jesus offers in today’s Gospel. For those with power and prestige—those for whom, as Ezekiel rightly asserts, prosperity can bring the assumption of invincibility—the eye of the needle makes one wonder what really matters in life.
True wealth is not measured in dollars or sense. It is the pure gift of God’s love showered upon us. This love is the great equalizer. Defying human logic, it turns everything we know on its head—the rich become poor, the sorrowing rejoice, the last rise to first—and we come to see that there is no greater worth than our kinship in Christ.
Beyond any sway we hold in this world or the balance of our bank accounts, Jesus assures us: We are all children of God. Christ urges us to put productivity aside, to abandon our egos, and to let go of the attachments that possess us. Only then can we catch a glimpse of the Kingdom of God; only then can we see that we must move toward it together; and only then can we recognize fully that salvation is not for sale; it comes when we relinquish control and surrender ourselves fully to the grace of communion.
