Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. (Mark 10:18 NABRE)
God the Father is "the source of all goodness who alone can grant the gift of eternal life."*
In a striking passage where Jesus confronts the Old Testament perspective that riches are a sign of God's favor, Jesus tells us that, "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.”*
Jesus understands that he asks us to sacrifice, in some cases to give up everything, in order to follow him--as the Apostles did. And so again, I am challenged to reconsider my own views, my own heart, and my own life.
Lord, I believe that you alone are good, that I cannot show goodness without you, and that I express hints of your goodness in my life when I live as Jesus asks. Lord, help me to avoid the suffocating desire for riches in this life, and to replace it with complete and constant yearning for riches in the next. And Lord, help me to sacrifice as you ask, to see where you lead, and to follow you fearlessly.
Today, I will consider the sacrifices of many and the conviction of my own wealth. I will ask God's help in recognizing him as the real source of my joy and in confronting this great challenge of earthly wealth placed in my path by Jesus.
Saint Gregory Grassi and companions, faithful witnesses to China and martyrs, pray for us.
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