You Can't Take It With You

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"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" (Matthew 19:24).

Most of us find truth in the saying, "You can't take it with you." But it's hard to pay heed to it when we're so busy yearning. The gap between God's kind and loving grace and our fixation on vain, earthly treasures is enormous - the two just don't mix. It's not wrong to have success and riches, but we aren't able to fix our minds on God while basking in the delight of our possessions or in clinging to the prospect of having them. In fact, Jesus tells us it's impossible, "For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).

Because we were made out of nothing by the power of God, it's impossible for us to do anything without Him, yet with the help of His grace, we're able to conform our lives to do His will because He gives us all we need to thrive, not just subsist in this world of desire.

It's true, there's no one "thing" we can take with us, but what we will take are the riches God gives us for accepting His offer of divine friendship - the kind of riches we attain now that stay with us forever.

Elizabeth