Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For all students returning to our schools, especially those who arrive carrying hardship at home, that they may find a steady welcome in their teachers and a place of belonging in their classrooms.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 19:23-30
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, 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.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
From the Fourth Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
In reading the Gospel you must study the manner and the means that he used to lead his disciples to practice the truths of the Gospel. Sometimes he proposed as a happiness everything that the world holds in horror, like poverty, injuries, insults, slander, and every kind of persecution for the sake of justice, even telling his disciples that they ought to be glad and rejoice when such things happen to them. Lastly he wanted the rich and those who have their pleasures in this world to be regarded as unfortunate.
Prayer
Eternal Father, we hear this Gospel and immediately look for the exception that lets us off. Take that instinct from us. Teach us to hold what we have loosely, to count security as a smaller thing than we have believed, and to trust that what is impossible for us is not impossible for you. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.