Tuesday, 9/20/13
In the Gospel, Jesus said, “It is hard for one who is rich
to enter the Kingdom of heaven.”
To that the disciples responded, “Who then can be saved?”
That was not a very Christian thing to say. And, it wasn’t.
St. Matthew told us this story to give us a sampling of common attitudes before
the coming of Jesus.
In the Old Testament it was only towards the final pages that
there was any mention of an afterlife. All that was promised to good-living
people in the time of Moses or David was that they would be wealthy, and that they
would live to see their great-grandchildren. (They were not promised good
health to go along with their long lives. They were only told that they would
somehow go struggling along till they got to hold their grandchildren’s babies.
Then it would be kerplunk, Amen, Amen.)
People in Old Testament times saw wealth and health as signs
of favor with God. They saw poverty and ill health as signs of sinfulness and
disfavor with God.
When Jesus and his disciples came on a man who was born
blind. The disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he
should be born blind?”
This year we have all been happy about our new Pope. He has
taken the name of Francis, promising to be a model of a Christ-like love and
respect for the poor.
No comments:
Post a Comment